THE   PRINCIPLES 


WITH  mi:  KOI.I.OWIM 


SCHEMES,  PLANS,  AND  PROPOSITIONS, 


WITH  ADDITIONS  AS  SET  FORTH  IN  ANNEX  AND  APPENDIX  J. 


BY    MATHIAS    KONCEN. 


SAINT  LOUIS: 

Tl.MKS    I'KlNTI.Vi    UOlftK,    I'OUNKl!    FIFTH    AND   CHESTNUT. 
1881. 


THE  PRINCIPLES 


SCHEMES,  PLANS,  AND  PROPOSITIONS. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881,  by  MATHIAS  KONCEN,  in  the 
Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


(RIGHT  OF   TRANSLATION  RESERVED.) 


SAINT  LOUIS: 

TIMES   PRINTING  HOUSE,   CORNER  FIFTH   AND  CHESTNUT. 

1881. 


To  THE  VOTERS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


In  the  following  pages,  I  present  for  your  consideration  various  schemes 
and  propositions,  which  appear  to  me  as  forming  a  sound  basis  for  the 
establishment  of  a  new  political  party.  That,  in  case  of  their  adoption, 
amendments  may  be  necessary,  I  will  not  deny ;  but  the  principles  em- 
bodied are  unalterable. 

Without  authority  I  present  the  following  named  citizens  as  being  best 
qualified  to  carry  out  these  schemes,  of  which  they  are  as  yet  entirely 
ignorant^-since,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  they  have  never 
as  yet  been  approached  upon  this  subject— so  that  the  appearance  of  this 
book  will  serve  as  an  introduction  both  to  the  author  and  his  work. 

The  new  party  may  be  designated  as  "  THE  PEOPLE'S  PROTECTION 
PARTY,"  with— 

FOR  PRESIDENT,  IN  1884, 
JERE  S.  BLACK,  of  Pennsylvania. 

FOR  VICE-PRESIDENT, 
BENJAMIN  H.  BRISTOW,  of  New  York. 

And  should  these  gentlemen  decline  to  accept,  then  I  trust  that  others 
may  be  found  who  will  take  up  the  matter. 

Very  respectfully, 

MAT.  KONCEN,  St.  Louis. 
April  2,  1881. 


SHIP  CANALS. 


THE    NATIONAL    BANK    SHIP    CANAL    SCHEME. 

It  is  proposed  to  apply  the  money  which  is  now  paid  as 
interest  upon  the  bonds  held  by  the  Government  as  security 
for  the  National  Bank  issue,  to  building  ship  canals,  herein- 
after described.  Taking  as  a  basis  the  National  Bank  circula- 
tion of  January  1, 1881,  which  amounted  to  $343,219,943.00. 
The  Government  to  issue  its  own  legal  tenders  for  an  equiv- 
alent amount,  with  that  issue  to  purchase  bonds  now  held  by 
the  treasury  as  security,  thus  effecting  the  retirement  of  the 
bank  circulation,  and  abolishing  the  National  Bank  system. 

The  Government  should  then,  for  a  period  of  fifty  years, 
apply  each  year  such  amount  as  was  formerly  required  to 
meet  the  interest  on  the  outstanding  bonds,  to  the  perfecting 
of  the  "  National  Bank  Ship  Canal  Scheme." 

The  annual  interest  upon  the  $343,219,943.00  at  4J  per 
cent  amounts  to  $15,444,896.00,  so  that  in  fifty  years,  an 
amount  aggregating  $772,244,800.00  will  have  been  realized, 
and  should  be  applied  pro  rata  to  the  building  of  the  herein- 
after-mentioned fifteen  canals,  or  $1,029, 659. 00  to  be  applied 
to  each  canal  per  annum. 

It  is  not  urged  that  it  would  be  expedient  for  the  Govern- 
ment to  commence,  simultaneously,  the  construction  of.  the 
whole  canal  system,  but  to  begin  at  once  upon  the  jive 
which  experience  teaches  would  be  of  greatest  benefit  to  the 
country.  By  this  latter  plan,  $3,088,979.00  could  be  applied 
to  each  of  the  five  canals  per  annum,  which,  together  with 

2003104 


4  CANALS. 

such  other  means  as  I  shall  hereafter  call  attention  to,  will 
guarantee  the  completion  of  the  work  in  less  than  ten  years. 

The  river  improvement  fund  should  be  used  for  the  im- 
provement of  rivers  from  their  mouths  to  the  points  where 
the  canals  will  begin. 

The  following  named  five  (5)  canals  should  be  built  first, 
viz  : 

No.  1.— Hudson  River  and  Lake  Ontario  via  the  Mohawk 
River* 

No.  2. — Rock  Island  and  Heuuepin  via  the  Old  Survey. 

No.  3. — Illinois  and  Michigan  via  the  Old  Survey. 

No.  4. — Ohio  River  and  Lake  Erie  via  the  Wabash  and 
Maumee  River. 

No.  5. — Michigan  City,  Fort  Wayne  and  Toledo  via  Fort 
Wayne  and  Maumee  River. 

The  other  ten  (10)  routes  are  as  follows  : 

No.  6. — Kanawha  and  James  River  via  The  Old  Survey. 

No.  7. — Rock  Island  and  Green  Bay  via  Rock  River,  with 
branch  to  Milwaukee. 

No.  8. — Philadelphia,  Rochester,  and  Lake  Ontario  via 
Delaware,  S usque lianna,  and  Genesee  Rivers. 

No.  9. — Paducah  and  Mobile  via  Tennessee  and  Tombigbee 
Rivers. 

No.  10. — Atlantic  and  St.  Lawrence  via  Connecticut 
River. 

No.  11. — Mississippi  River  and  Sabine  River  via  Bayou 
La  Fourche. 

No.  12. — Portsmouth  and  Sandusky  via  Scioto  and  San- 
dusky  Rivers  with  branches  to  Toledo  and  Cleveland  by  the 
most  feasible  route. 

No.  13. — Mississippi  and  Red  River  of  the  North  via 
Minnesota  River. 

No.  14. — Galvestou  and  Austin  via  Buffalo  Bayou,  Brazos, 
and  Colorado  Rivers. 

No.  15. — Mississippi  River  and  Lake  Superior  via  St. 
CJroix  River. 


CANALS.  5 

The  locks  of  the  above  named  canals  to  be  300  feet  long, 
60  feet  in  width,  and  10  feet  deep.  The  States  through 
which  said  canals  are  to  pass,  to  condemn  the  right  of  way. 
The  counties  bordering  said  canals  paying  for  property  so 
condemned.  Further,  that  in  addition  to  other  labor,  the 
convicts  of  the  States  through  which  canals  will  pass,  are  to 
work  on  said  canals,  until  they  are  completed,  at  the  expense 
of  the  different  States,  and  finally,  the  States  to  relinquish 
all  jurisdiction  over  canals  or  navigable  rivers  to  the  general 
Government.  No  man  who  has  been  employed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment or  by  any  contractor,  30  days  prior  to  an  election, 
to  work  on  either  the  canals  or  improvement  of  rivers,  to  be 
permitted  to  cast  a  vote  either  for  President  or  Governor, 
or  for  State  or  United  States  Representative. 

ADVANTAGES  TO  BE  DEEIVED  FROM  PROPOSED 
CANALS. 

The  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  is  too  well  known  to 
require  any  comment,  but  if  it  is  not  built,  the  city  of 
Chicago  will  be  forced  to  construct  a  sewer  or  a  canal  through 
the  summit  level,  at  her  own  expense,  otherwise  the  stench 
will  become  intolerable  during  the  summer  months.  If  the 
proposed  canal  is  built,  Chicago  will  rank  as  one  of  the 
healthiest  eities  in  the  country,  since  the  lake,  being  higher 
than  the  Illinois  River,  a  strong  current  will  be  obtained,  and 
the  filth  of  the  city  carried  away.  Moreover,  greater  depth 
will  be  given  the  river,  and  larger  boats  can  navigate  it.  The 
Illinois  River  will  become  a  greater  feeder  for  the  Mississippi, 
and  vessels  can  be  loaded  at  Chicago  for  New  Orleans.  The 
advantages  of  such  a  water  route  would  be  incalculable  :  for> 
take  the  tonnage  between  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans.  A 
tow-boat  successfully  manages  five  barges  of  one  thousand 
tons  each,  which  would  give  a  gross  of  five  thousands  tons 
per  trip,  which  could  be  made  between  Chicago  and  New 
Orleans,  including  delay  of  discharging  cargo  at  the  latter 
point,  inside  of  30  days.  The  one  tow  of  5,000  tons  would 


6  CANALS. 

be  equal  to  416  freight  cars,  or  to  13  trains  of  30  cars  each. 
The  freight  upon  the  tow  of  166,666  bushels,  at  6  cents  per 
bushel,  would  be  $10,000.  The  time  in  transit  would  be  10 
days  down  and  15  days  returning,  or  25  days  for  the  round 
trip,  to  which  should  be  added  5  days  for  loading  and  un- 
loading. The  average  daily  running  expense  of  such  a  tow- 
boat  is  $200.00,  including  wharfage  and  insurance.  So  that 
the  round  trip  of  30  days  would  cost  $6,000.00,  leaving  a 
net  gain  of  $4,000.00  per  trip  ;  that  is,  provided  th«  return 
to  Chicago  should  be  made  without  up-freight.  Should  the 
tow  add  one  thousand  tons  in  New  Orleans  for  Chicago — say  of 
sugar,  molasses,  rice  or  cotton,  then  $2.50  per  ton  of  freight, 
or  $2,500.00,  less  $400.00  for  additional  time  (2  days),  and 
deducting  $100.00  for  extra  labor  in  handling  the  up-freight 
and  we  have  the  grand  net  result  of  one  tow — showing  gain 
of  $6,000.00.  In  proof  of  which,  I  refer  to  what  has  been 
done  by  the  tow-boat  « '  Port  Eads"  and  others  plying  between 
New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  which  convey  fleets  of  barges, 
representing  a  carrying  capacity  of  5,000  tons  to  New  Orleans 
in  7  days,  and  return  from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis  in  12 
days — at  a  running  expense,  as  is  shown  by  their  books,  of 
$200.00  per  day.  These  barges  have  transported  grain  at  the 
rate  of  5  1-2  cents  per  bushel,  and  there  have  been  10,465 
tons  of  bulk  grain  taken  from  St.  Louis  to  New  Orleans  in 
one  tow  by  steamer  "  Oakland."  (See  Appendix  "  C  ".) 

Now  with  the  ship  canal  built,  and  the  navigation  of  the 
river  improved,  dangers  would  necessarily  be  lessened,  and 
the  rate  of  insurance  proportionately  reduced  ;  while,  owing 
to  a  permanent  and  regular  depth  of  channel,  the  time  at 
present  required  would  be  reduced,  as  greater  speed  would 
be  possible  ;  and  barge  lines  could  carry  grain  in  bulk  from 
Chicago  to  New  Orleans  at  the  rate  of  6  1-2  cents  per  bushel, 
which  would  result  in  a  saving  to  the  farmer  of  about  10  cents 
per  bushel  or  more  than  enough  to  pay  his  taxes  annually. 
Yet  another  source  of  revenue  and  profit  could  be  created  by 
constructing  upon  the  deck  of  one  barge  in  each  tow  a  cabin, 
suitable  to  the  transportation  of  that  class  of  passengers, 


CANALS.  7 

known  upon  Mississippi  river  boats  as"  deck  passengers." 
They  provide  their  own  provisions  and  bedding,  and  can  be 
carried  at  the  rate  of  $5.00  each  either  way.  Many  poor 
families,  desirous  of  moving,  rather  than  pay  $90.00, 
which  is  about  the  rate  for  a  family  of  four  persons,  and 
household  goods  second-class  on  railroad,  would  take  the 
canal  and  river  route  at,  say,  about  $30.00,  thus  saving 
$60.00 — the  time  lost  would  be  7  days,  but  the  amount 
saved  per  day  would  be  $8.50.  The  revenue  derived  from 
such  source  would  produce  a  sufficient  amount  to  cover  ordi- 
nary repairs  of  boat  and  barges.  Assuming  that  the  tow- 
boat  costs  about  $45,000  and  the  barges  $5,000  each,  then  the 
fleet  of  tow-boat  and  five  barges  represents  $70,000,  at  a  profit 
$6,000  per  trip,  and  a  possibility  of  eight  trips  per  annum, 
and  the  net  profit  would  be  $48,000  upon  the  investment  of 
$70,000.  Even  if  the  receipts  should  fall  short — say  $2,400  or 
one  barge  less — the  eight  trips  per  annum  would  yield  a  profit 
of  $32,000,  which  we  may  consider  a  fair  result. 

The  heaviest  losses  now  experienced  upon  the  Mississippi 
River  are  occasioned,  outside  of  stormy  weather,  by  a  low 
stage  of  water,  which  causes  boats  to  lay  up,  owing  to  their 
not  being  able  to  make  the  short  turns  in  the  channel,  and 
by  grounding  from  one  to  five  days  are  lost.  In  order  to 
provide  for  such  contingencies  barge  lines  are  compelled  to 
adjust  their  rates  in  order  to  cover  losses  resulting  from 
stage  or  condition  of  the  river.  Build  canals  and  improve 
the  rivers,  and  grain  can  be  carried  from  Chicago  to  New 
Orleans  at  six,  and  one-half  cents  per  bushel,  and  way- 
freights — that  is,  freight  for  points  between  New  Orleans 
and  Chicago — can  be  carried  by  a  class  of  large  stern-wheel 
boats. 

The  citizens  of  Peoria  contend  that  to  the  Chicago  sewage 
is  attributable  the  filthy  condition  and  the  terrible  smell  of 
the  Illinois  River  opposite  to  their  city.  They  oppose  the 
cutting  of  the  summit  level,  in  order  that  Chicago  may  drain 
into  the  Illinois  River.  But  their  complaints  are  unjust. 
Besides,  the  well  known  fact  that  running  water  purifies 


8  CANALS. 

itself,  it  has  been  proven  by  chemical  analysis  that  the  water 
is  purified  before  reaching  Peoria.  Chillicothe,  Lacon, 
Henry,  Heunepin,  and  Peru,  towns  located  between  the  end 
of  the  canal  and  Peoria  make  no  complaint.  In  further 
proof,  if  tests  are  made  of  water  taken  from  the  front  of 
either  of  the  above  towns,  or  from  the  river  in  front  of  the 
towns  of  Pekin,  Havana,  Beardstown,  Naples  or  Hardin, 
all  lying  below  Peoria,  it  will  be  found  to  be  sweet ;  whereas, 
an  analysis  of  water  taken  from  the  river  in  front  of  Peoriu, 
at  six  different  points,  lying  between  one  thousand  feet  above 
the  bridge  and  four  thousand  feet  below,  will  prove  beyond 
doubt,  that  the  stench  and  impurity  of  the  water  results 
from  the  influx  of  Peoria  sewage,  which  remains  there,  as 
there  is  not  current  enough  in  -the  river  to  carry  it  off. 
Every  steamboatman  who  has  ever  visited  Peoria,  during  a  low 
stage  of  water,  is  familiar  with  the  fact,  that  every  revolution 
of  the  wheel  has  stirred  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  river 
slimy  and  offensive  matter.  Build  the  canal  by  cutting 
through  the  "  Summit  Level  "  and  a  current  will  be  created 
in  the  river,  sufficient  to  carry  off  the  sewage.  Whereas, 
a  current  of  two  miles  per  hour  being  thus  obtained  through 
the  ship  canal,  the  water  would  purify  itself,  before  reaching 
a  point  fifty  miles  from  Chicago.  As  to  Peoria,  make  a  uni- 
form width  of  the  river,  from  half  a  mile  above  to  the  lower 
end  of  the  city ;  narrow  the  channel  in  front  of  the  city, 
clean  out  the  slime  and  filth  at  the  bottom,  permit  no  dump- 
ing in  front  of  the  town,  and,  with  the  proper  increase  in 
current,  Peoria  will  enjoy  pure  water. 

The  Wabash  could  be  used  as  a  feeder  to  the  Ohio  River  : 
as,  at  its  mouth,  it  is  218  feet  below  Lake  Erie,  and  the 
Scioto  at  Portsmouth  is  the  first  river  below  Pittsburgh, 
which  could  be  used  as  a  feeder  to  the  Ohio  River,  it  being 
only  35  feet  below  Lake  Erie  when  the  Ohio  is  high,  and  86 
feet  below  Lake  Erie  when  the  Ohio  is  low.  The  mouth  of 
the  Muskingum  is  103  in  high  water,  and  in  low  water  57 
feet  above  Lake  Erie. 


The  Lake  Michigan  and  Lake  Superior  Ship  Canal  via 
White  Fish  and  Train  Rivers  would  be  used  by  lake  schooners 
and  propellers.  It  should  be  14  feet  deep.  A  vessel  pur- 
suing this  route  from  Chicago  or  Milwaukee  to  Duluth  would 
save  about  400  miles  over  the  route  by  the  straits  of  Mackinaw 
and  St.  Marie's  River,  and,  in  the  event  of  a  war  with 
England,  the  Government  could  pass  her  navy  from  lake  to 
lake  without  nearing  Canada  shores. 

The  Mississippi,  Red  River  of  the  North  Ship  Canal  via  the 
Minnesota  River  would  not  be  expensive,  from  the  fact  that 
both  rivers  head  in  the  same  lakes  upon  the  summit  of  the 
divide.  This  latter  route  completed,  then  a  steamer  of  2,500 
tons  capacity  could  go  from  New  Orleans  to  Hudson  Bay. 

The  Rock  Island  and  Hennepin  Ship  Canal  route  via  Rock 
River  and  the  Old  Survey,  .with  this  and  other  proposed 
routes  completed,  then  bulk  grain  could  be  transported  from 
Rock  Island  to  New  York  via  all  water  route. 

If  the  Atlantic  and  St.  Lawrauce  Ship  Canal  should  prove 
too  expensive  an  undertaking,  then  the  governors  of  all 
those  States  bordering  on  the  Connecticut  River  to  appoint 
a  delegate  to  a  convention,  assembled  for  the  purpose  of 
selecting  some  other  route.  Said  selection  to  be  made  with 
the  assistance  of  a  U.  S.  civil  engineer,  appointed  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  War.  A  decision  being  arrived  at,  the  same  shall 
be  forwarded  to  the  President  for  approval.  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  Vermont,  and  New  Hampshire  each  to  appoint 
three  delegates  to  said  convention,  and  in  the  event  of  a  tie 
vote,  the  United  States  civil  engineer  to  cast  the  deciding 
vote. 

The  Galveston,  Houston  and  Austin  Ship  Canal  via  Buf- 
falo Bayou,  the  Brazos  and  Colorado  Rivers  is  a  practicable 
route  and  a  short  cut  from  Buffalo  Bayou  to  Brazos  River, 
and  an  easy  cut  from  the  Brazos  to  the  Colorado  River. 
When  the  Brazos  and  Colorado  Rivers  shall  have  been 
improved,  by  the  river  improvement  fund,  to  their  head 
waters,  then  boats  can  run  from  Galvestou  to  Houston  via 


10  CANALS. 

Buffalo  Baycu,  without  going  to  the  Gulf,  as  the  mouths  of 
these  rivers  afford  bad  harbors.  Galveston  favors  the  cut 
across  from  Buffalo  Bayou,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  a 
steam  ship  company,  on  account  of  some  disagreement  with 
the  authorities,  has  discontinued  landing  at  Galveston,  and 
has  constructed  a  private  harbor  to  the  south,  which  is  inju- 
rious to  Galveston.  It  is  also  reported  that  Jay  Gould  & 
Co.  have  selected  the  mouth  of  the  Sabine  River  for  the 
location  of  a  commercial  city  and  railroad  centre,  since  it 
affords  a  fine  harbor  and  possesses  other  advantages  that 
would  divert  the  business  of  the  interior  of  Texas  from  Gal- 
veston. 

BALTIMORE    AND    ONTARIO    SHIP    CANAL. 

The  river  improvement  fund  of  the  Atlantic  Division  to 
improve  the  Susquehanna  from  Baltimore  to  the  West  Fork 
— depth  of  channel  to  be  10  feet.  The  convict  labor  of 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  to  be  employed  upon  the  work. 
Extending  to  where  the  Philadelphia  and  Ontario  canal 
passes  along  the  Susquehanna.  Counties  bordering  upon  the 
Baltimore  and  Ontario  Canal  to  pay  for  right  of  way,  as  upon 
other  canals.  It  will  be  advantageous  for  the  State  of 
Maryland  to  employ  her  convict  labor  upon  the  canal  north 
of  the  West  Fork,  although  it  be  out  of  her  territory. 

ROCK  RIVER  AND  GREEN  BAY  CANAL. 

This  is  the  only  canal  that  could  be  utilized  as  a  feeder  to 
the  Mississippi  River  from  Lake  Michigan,  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Illinois  River  and  St.  Paul,  Minn.  At  Rock 
Island  the  mouth  of  Rock  River  is  83  feet  below  Lake 
Michigan.  At  Green  Bay,  according  to  Humphrey  and 
Abbott's  survey,  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  River  is  24  feet 
above  Lake  Michigan,  and  24  feet  below  Lake  Superior. 

The  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  River  is  43  feet  above  Lake 
Superior. 


CANALS.  11 

MICHIGAN  CITY,  FORT    WAYNE,  AND  TOLEDO  SHIP  CANAL. 

The  Government  to  construct  a  ship  canal  from  the  most 
feasible  point  near  Michigan  City  to  Toledo,  and  improve 
the  Maumee  River  from  Fort  Wayne  to  Toledo.  Locks  on 
said  canal  and  river  to  be  300  feet  long,  60  feet  wide,  and  14 
feet  deep ;  and  the  money  designated  for  the  proposed  Ohio 
River  and  Lake  Erie  Canal  via  the  Wabash  and  Maumee 
Rivers,  to  be  added  to  the  proposed  Michigan  City,  Fort 
Wayne,  and  Toledo  route,  and  the  two  funds  would  amount 
to  $6,177,958.00  per  annum  ;  the  convict  labor  of  the  State 
of  Indiana  to  work  on  said  route  until  completed  at  the 
State's  expense,  and  the  two  above-mentioned  routes  to  be 
classed  as  one,  and  the  money  to  be  used  to  complete  the 
Michigan  City,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Toledo  route  first,  and  then 
both  funds  to  be  used  to  complete  the  unfinished  part  of  the 
Ohio  River  and  Lake  Erie  route,  by  constructing  a  ship 
canal  from  Fort  Wayne  into  the  Wabash  River,  and  to 
improve  the  Wabash  River  from  the  end  of  the  canal  to  Terre 
Haute,  with  locks  and  dams  if  necessary ;  the  locks  from 
Terre  Haute  to  Fort  Wayne  to  be  300  feet  long,  60  feet  wide, 
and  10  feet  deep.  The  funds  of  the  Mississippi  River 
Improvement  Division,  a  fund  provided  for  and  hereinafter 
explained,  to  be  used  to  improve  the  Wabash  River  from  its 
mouth  to  Terre  Haute.  The  distance  by  the  proposed  Mich- 
igan City,  Fort  Wayne,  and  Toledo  Canal  route^  would  be 
about  500  miles  shorter  from  Chicago  to  Toledo  than  via 
Straits  of  Mackinaw,  and  would  be  open  to  navigation  about 
two  weeks  earlier  in  the  spring,  and  about  two  weeks  later 
in  the  fall  than  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw  route,  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  about  250  miles  further  south  ;  and  with  the  Michi- 
gan peninsula  cut-oif  route  completed,  and  the  thirty-two 
dollars  per  capita  route  completed,  then  a  propeller  could 
load  at  Chicago  with  bulk  grain  for  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
or  Baltimore  below  present  rates,  and  go  through  direct 
without  reshipping,  and  have  one  month  longer  open  naviga- 
tion annually  than  by  Mackinaw  Straits ;  and  also  by  the 


12  CANALS. 

proposed  routes  there  would  be  an  outlet  for  the  ports  of 
Lakes  Michigan,  Superior,  Huron,"  and  Erie  to  New  Orleans, 
via  proposed  routes  and  the  Wabash,  Ohio,  and  Mississippi 
Kivers.  The  master  stroke  of  the  proposition  is,  that  the 
proposed  routes  will  cost  the  people  nothing,  except  their 
good  will,  and  therefore  1  vote  yea. 

THE   THIRTY-TWO  DOLLARS  PER  CAPITA   SHIP   CANAL   SCHEME. 

If  Congress  should  conclude  that  thirty-two  dollars  per 
capita  of  circulating  medium  would  not  endanger  the  busi- 
ness of  the  country  or  cause  inflation,  then  the  Government 
to  issue  one  hundred  millions  of  legal  tenders,  and  with  the 
said  issue  retire  an  equivalent  amount  of  outstanding  four  per 
cent  United  States  Bonds,  applying  the  annual  interest  so 
saved  to  the  construction  of  the  following  described  ship 
canals : 

The  New  York,  Rochester,  Lake  Ontario,  and  Buffalo. 

The  Philadelphia,  Rochester,  Lake  Ontario,  and  Buffalo, 
and 

The  Baltimore,  Rochester,  Lake  Ontario,  and  Buffalo  ship 
canal  routes. 

First,  construct  a  canal  from  near  Newburg,  on  the  Hud- 
son, to  the  Delaware  River;  then  improve  the  Delaware  to 
a  point  most  suitable  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  a  canal 
across  to  the  Susquehauna  River ;  then  improve  the  Susque- 
hanna  to  the  West  Branch,  a,nd  to  a  point  most  suitable  for 
the  construction  of  a  canal  across  into  the  Geuesee  River, 
and  then  improve  the  Genesee  River  to  a  point  most  suitable 
for  the  construction  of  a  canal  to  Buffalo.  And  if  the  above 
thirty-two  dollar  per  capita  scheme  is  adopted,  then  the  New 
*  York  and  Lake  Ontario,  and  the  Philadelphia  and  Lake 
Ontario  Canals,  as  described  in  the  national  bank  ship  canal 
scheme,  are  to  be  abandoned,  and  the  money  that  has  been 
designated  for  said  routes  to  be  applied  to  the  proposed 
thirty-two  dollar  per  capita  scheme,  which  would,  in  twenty 
years,  amount  to  $41, 186,360.00,  and  the  interest  saved  from 


CANALS.  Ifr 

the  one  hundred  million  as  proposed  by  the  thirty-two  dollar 
per  capita  scheme,  would  yield,  in  twenty  years,  eighty  million 
dollars,  and  with  the  forty  million  from  the  national  bank 
ship  canal  scheme,  would  make  a  grand  total  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  million  dollars  in  twenty  years,  or  six  millions 
annually ;  the  convict  labor  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Maryland  to  work  on  the  proposed  routes  until  com- 
pleted at  these  States'  expense. 

The  River  Improvement  Fund  of  the  Atlantic  Division  to 
improve  the  Delaware,  Susquehanna  and  Genesee  Rivers 
from  their  mouths  to  where  the  canals  begin ;  and  at  the  end 
of  twenty  years,  if  the  three  proposed  canal  routes  are  not 
completed,  then  the  Government  to  prolong  the  interest  on 
the  bonds  until  the  proposed  canal  routes  are  completed  ; 
and  when  said  canals  shall  have  been  finished,  then  the  bonds 
shall  also  be  finished,  because  there  will  be  no  principal  to 
pay.  By  this  scheme  we  have  constructed  three  ship  canal 
routes  from  the  ocean  to  the  lakes  and  have  liquidated  over 
one  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  of  the  national  debt, 
and  at  no  additional  expense  to  the  people. 

The  depth  of  the  canals  and  rivers  should  be  14  feet,  since 
that  would  exceed  by  one-half  foot  the  depth  of  the  Welland 
Canal.  Vessels  can  not  pass  from  Lakes  Superior  and  Mich- 
igan to  Lake  Erie  drawing  over  13  feet,  hence  it  would  be 
unnecessary  to  give  the  canals  a  greater  depth  than  14  feet. 
Vessels  would,  upon  leaving  lake  ports,  choose  this  route  in 
preference  to  the  Welland  Canal  on  account  of  time  and  toll 
saved. 

An  American  vessel,  under  existing  arrangements,  sailing 
the  Welland  Canal,  does  so  under  the  authority  of,  and  pays 
toll  to  the  British  Government ;  and  in  the  event  of  any 
difficulty  between  the  English  and  American  Governments, 
the  former  would  at  once  place  an  embargo  upon  the  Wel- 
land Canal. 

With  a  system  of  canals,  perfected  as  proposed  such  con- 
tingencies would  be  avoided,  and  we  could  then  pass  our 
merchant  vessels  or  gun  boats  from  the  ocean  to  the  lakes 


14  CANALS. 

without  difficulty.  If  the  uniform  depth  of  14  feet  were  to 
be  exceeded,  then  a  larger  class  of  vessels,  coming  direct 
from  Europe  to  lake  ports  would  divert  commerce  from  the 
sea-board,  so  that  cities  of  the  sea-board  would  find  it  to 
their  interest  to  combine  to  defeat  a  scheme  which  could  but 
be  attended  with  injury  to  them.  A  14-foot  canal  could  not 
do  a  greater  amount  of  injury  to  New  York,  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore,  than  the  Welland  Canal,  and  the  Government 
should  charge  all  foreign  built  or  foreign  registered  vessels  a 
tariff  of  fifty  cents  per  ton — Custom  House  measurement — 
the  revenue  thus  derived  to  be  applied  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Hudson  and  St.  Lawrence  Rivers  ship  canal  via 
Lake  Champlain. 

The  farmers  northwest  of  the  canal  would  save  millions 
annually,  on  account  of  cheap  transportation ;  and  in  the 
event  of  war,  as  before  stated,  the  Government  would  be 
independent  of  the  Welland  Canal. 

The  bonds  to  be  bought  as  proposed  by  this  $32.00  per  capita 
plan,  should  be  four  and  one-half  or  five  per  cent  bonds, 
instead  of  four  per  cents,  the  percentage  so  gained  to  be  used 
for,  and  applied  to  the  construction  of  the  Lake  Michigan 
and  Lake  Superior  ship  canal  route  via  White  Fish  and 
Train  Rivers. 

This  proposed  canal  would  be  a  short  and  not  expensive 
one  to  cut. 

In  case  the  $32.00  per  capita  route  should  prove,  by  survey, 
to  be  too  expensive,  then  the  money  assigned  to  that  route 
should  be  employed  in  making  a  ship  canal  of  the  Erie  Canal 
from  Buffalo  to  Albany,  with  a  branch  into  the  Delaware  and 
Susquehanna  Rivers,  in  order  that  Philadelphia  and  Balti- 
more may  have  a  water  route  to  Lake  Erie.  The  State  of 
New  York,  by  act  of  its  legislature,  to  donate  the  Erie  Canal 
and  all  its  franchise  to  the  U.  S.  Government,  and  to  con- 
demn and  pay  for  all  lands,  and  improvements  thereon  that 
may  be  infringed  upon  in  widening  the  canal :  Provided, 
however,  that  all  incorporated  cities  bordering  said  canal 
shall  pay  for  all  lands  and  improvements,  which,  in  their 


BANKS.  15 

corporate  limits  may  be  sacrificed  to  the  enlargement  of  the 
canal.  Said  canal  to  be  a  free  public  waterway,  except  for  a 
nominal  charge  upon  all  vessels,  sufficent  to  keep  up,  man- 
age, and  repair  it.  The  State  of  New  York  to  relinquish  all 
jurisdiction  over  said  canal  to  the  U.  S.  Government.  All 
vessels,  boats,  and  barges  navigating  said  canals,  to  be  gov- 
erned by  the  same  laws  imposed  upon  the  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  River. 

Should  there  remain  any  surplus  funds  after  construction 
of  the  canals  hereinbefore  proposed,  the  said  funds  to  be 
applied  to  the  construction  of  a  ship  canal  from  the  Missis- 
sippi Kiver  to  Lake  Superier  via  the  Wisconsin  River  with 
branch  to  Lake  Michigan.  Such  route  could  be  utilized  as 
a  feeder  to  the  Mississippi  River,  since  the  Wisconsin  River 
at  its  mouth  is  25  feet  below  Lake  Superior;  the  said  sur- 
plus to  be  also  used  in  the  construction  of  the  Ohio  and 
Ontario  ship  canal  via  Pittsburgh  and  Rochester,  Alleghany, 
and  Genesee  Rivers,  both  of  said  canals  to  be  constructed 
and  managed  in  the  manner  prescribed  for  the  National  Bank 
ship  canals. 


NATIONAL  BANKS. 


I  now  propose  to  prove  that  the  Government  should  wind  up 
the  national  banks,  and  issue  its  own  legal  tenders,  in  lieu  of 
the  circulation  thus  to  be  retired,  while  the  interest  saved 
should  be  used  for  the  construction  of  the  ' '  National  Bank 
ship  canals." 

The  position  of  the  Government  is  analogous  to  that  of 
the  individual.  If  a  man  can  show  that  the  receipts  from 
his  business  are  in  excess  of  his  expenditures,  and  that  he 
possesses  uniucumbered  real  estate,  then  the  man's  note  is 
good,  and  he  can  obtain  money  at  a  proportionately  low  rate 


30  BANKS. 

of  interest.  According  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  under  date  of  January  1,  1881,  the  receipts  for 
the  fiscal  year  exceeded  the  expenses  by  $61,441,642.00,  and 
there  are  millions  of  acres  of  land,  unincumbered,  standing 
in  the  name  of  the  Government;  hence  her  note  is  good,  and 
she  is  entitled  to  .enjoy  the  lowest  rate  of  interest,  particu- 
larly since  her  credit  is  firmly  established  abroad,  and  her 
name  has  become  synonymous  with  prompt  payment ;  and 
that  at  all  times  she  stands  ready  to  protect  her  creditors. 
In  proof  of  which  statement,  I  will  instance  the  fact  that, 
when  the  question  arose  as  to  whether  the  interest  on  the 
bonds  was  to  be  paid  in  legal  tender  or  coin  (it  was  under- 
stood by  the  people  that  it  should  be  paid  in  legal  tenders 
or  lawful  money),  the  bondholders  succeeded  in  having  a 
bill  passed  through  Congress  requiring  the  interest  to  be 
paid  in  coin.  As  to  the  manner  in  which  that  bill  was  engin- 
eered, I  must  appeal  to  the  "  lobbyists."  But  the  Govern- 
ment, placing  a  liberal  construction  upon  it,  gave  the 
bondholders  the  "  benefit  of  the  doubt,"  and  pays  in  coin. 
But  that  doubt  has  cost  the  Government  $59,738,000.00, 
being  the  amount  of  premiums  paid  in  nineteen  years — that 
is,  from  1861  to  1879. 

The  Secretary's  report  to  Congress,  January  10th,  1880, 
shows  that,  from  1861  to  1879,  the  Government  has  paid  in 
interest  on  the  public  debt,  during  the  past  nineteen  years, 
$1,764,256,198.00,  which,  upon  the  present  population, 
amounts  to  $35.18  per  capita.  The  premium  of  $59,738,- 
000.00  paid  upon  gold,  amounts  to  over  $1.00  per  capita; 
expense  for  national  loans  and  currency,  $51,523,000.00,  over 
$1.00  per  capita — making  the  total  expense  to  the  public, 
on  interest,  premiums,  commissions,  etc.,  $37.18  per  capita; 
and,  taking  it  as  assured,  that  one-half  the  debt  is  owed 
abroad,  and  the  other  half  at  home,  we  find  that  the  people 
have  paid  for  the  so-called  loyalty  at  the  rate  of  about 
$18.60  per  capita  ;  and,  according  to  the  capitalists'  construc- 
tion of  loyalty,  lending  money  to  the  Government  at  six  per 
cent  is  better  evidence  than  the  exploits  of  the  laborer,  the 


BANKS.  17 

• 

mechanic,  and  the  farmer,  who,  leaving  his  shovel,  anvil, 
plane,  and  plow,  shouldered  his  musket  in  defense  of  the 
Union.  The  time  has  arrived  when  the  Government  should 
say  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  national  banks  :  "  Your  banks  are 
"to  be  wound  up.  Legal  tenders  will  be  issued  in  lieu  of 
' '  your  circulation.  You  can  not  object,  since  you  have  grown 
"  rich  at  the  expense  of  the  people.  At  the  commencement 
"  of  the  war  you  bought  my  greenbacks  with  your  gold,  at  a 
"  heavy  discount,  with  the  greenbacks  so  obtained  you  bought 
"  my  bonds  also  at  a  discount,  and  with  those  bonds  you  have 
"  operated  your  national  banks."  Hence  is  it  not  now  in 
order  for  the  Government  to  abolish  the  national  banking 
system?  Those  gentlemen  have  been  well  served  during 
the  past  twenty  years,  and  have  become  rich  off  the  interest 
wrested  from  the  people— the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  coun- 
try. The  banks  have  received  their  six  per  cent  in  gold, 
but  when  the  Government  has  called  upon  the  banks  for  gold, 
she  has  been  compelled  to  pay  a  high  premium,  although 
the  gold  so  bought  was  to  meet  the  next  semi-annual  install- 
ment of  interest  due  upon  the  bonds.  Beyond  this,  the 
Government  has  paid  banks  a  commission  upon  the  sales  or 
negotiations  of  her  loans,  so  that  no  just  grounds  of  com- 
plaint can  exist  when  it  is  proposed  to  retire  the  national 
bank  circulation  by  the  substitution  of  a  direct  issue  from 
the  treasury.  The  Government  has  over  one  million  acres  of 
unincumbered  lands  for  every  dollar  to  be  issued,  and  it  is 
time  to  consider  the  interests  of  the  people,  who  for  the  past 
twenty  years  have  been  groaning  under  the  burden  of  these 
interest  payments. 

It  is  the  people  who  furnish  the  men  to  defend  the  Union, 
and  not  the  capitalists.  Wind  up  the  banks,  and  with  the 
interest  saved  build  the  national  bank  ship  canals,  thus 
affording  employment  to  the  idle  labor  of  the  country,  and 
assuring  to  the  farmer,  cheaper  transportation  for  his  pro- 
ducts than  is  promised  by  the  railroad  monopolies.  By  the 
employment  of  the  convict  labor  in  the  heavy  cuts,  the 
mechanic  will  be  relieved  from  the  hurtful  competition 
resulting  from  its  employment. 


18  BANKS. 

Through  fear  of  inflation  the  people  may  demand  that  the 
increase  of  national  bank  issue  be  stopped.  The  present 
rate  of  increase  points  surely  to  inflation.  Moreover,  a  bill 
is  prepared  for  presentation  to  the  next  Congress  to  enact  a 
law  permitting  the  present  national  banks  to  increase  their 
issue;  and  should  that  law  pass,  then,  in  a  very  few  years, 
the  issue  per  capita  would  reach  $32.00,  and  even  higher, 
unless  stopped  by  Congress,  and  by  that  time  the  Govern- 
ment may  have  liquidated  the  national  debt,  except  such 
bonds  as  might  be  held  as  security  for  the  national  bank 
issue,  in  which  event  the  banks  might  petition  Congress, 
through  skilled  lobbyists,  to  continue  that  portion  of  the 
debt  as  represented  by  them  as  a  "  national  blessing,"  so- 
called. 

When  the  Greenback  party  started,  with  its  scheme  of 
issue,  the  bankers  all  cried  out  "  Inflation  with  an  irre- 
deemable paper  money ;  "  and  so  it  was,  as  no  limit  had 
been  fixed,  nor  plan  for  redemption  settled  upon.  The 
Greenbackers  can  now  cry  out  Inflation!  unless  the  issue  of 
the  national  banks  is  stopped.  That  a  certain  amount  of 
currencjr  is  necessary  can  not  be  questioned  since  there  is  not 
enough  coin  in  the  world  to  meet  the  demands  of  commerce, 
but  paper  money,  to  have  the  value  of  coin,  requires  sub- 
stantial backing.  If  law  and  power  could  guarantee  to  paper 
the  same  purchasing  power  as  is  possessed  by  a  coin  dollar, 
then  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  with  his  half  million  soldiers 
and  control  of  the  law,  through  the  hirelings  of  the  Upper 
House,  would  not  permit  his  Government  to  .suffer,  as  it 
does,  for  want  of  money.  That  want  of  money  may  be 
accounted  for  by  considering  that  the  Government  lacks 
stability,  that  the  expenses  exceed  the  revenues,  and  hence, 
the  value  of  paper  mone}^  depreciates. 

The  United  States  is  at  peace  with  all  nations,  and  at 
home  ;  her  revenue  far  exceeds  her  expenses  ;  she  possesses 
millions  of  acres  of  unsold  lands,  ample  security  for  her 
paper  issue ;  therefore  the  Government  should  abolish  the 
National  Banks  and  issue  her  own  Legal  Tenders.  The 


BANKS.  19 

increased  issue,  according  to  the  ideas  embodied  in  this  work, 
would  gradually  run  up  to  the  fixed  limit  of  $32.00  per 
capita,  at  which  point  it  could  be  held,  until  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  objects  had  in  view  when  it  was  increased  :  after 
that  it  could  be  gradually  retired  as  an  army  officer,  however 
able,  no  matter  how  well  he  has  served  his  country,  is  retired, 
when  there  is  no  longer  any  cull  for  his  services.  The 
National  Banks  sprang  into  being  during  the  dark  days  of  the 
Republic,  but  now  they  are  corrupt  and  arrogant,  having  out- 
lived their  days  of  usefulness,  and,  like  Lucifer,  they  may 
fall,  never  to'  rise  again.  The  National  Bank  system  is, 
beyond  doubt,  the  best  plan  ever  devised  for  the  protection  of 
a  Government  that  is  financially  weak — such  as  was  the  case 
with  ours  at  the  outbreak  of  the  late  war.  Thanks  to  the 
founder  of  the  National  Bank — and  thanks  to  the  discoverer 
of  quinine,  which  though  it  is  a  most  excel  lent  specific  for  the 
ague*  we  object  to  taking  when  we  have  no  ague — as  it  is 
bitter.  Now,  we  do  not  need  the  National  Banks  and  we 
object  to  paying  the  interest,  seeing  no  reason  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  expense.  The  officers  of  the  banks  may 
demand  that  they  (the  banks)  be  continued,  simply  because 
they  saved  the  Government  from  financial  ruin  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  late  war  ;  but  the  Government  can  answer 
that,  by  saying  bankers  and  doctors  are  alike  in  one  respect 
— for,  when  a  man  is  sick,  he  will  call  in  a  physician,  take 
his  prescriptions  until  he  gets  well :  but  then  he  dispenses 
with  the  services  of  the  doctor,  first  having  paid  his  bill, 
having  no  further  use  for  him.  Now  suppose,  the  physician 
were  to  claim,  that  his  ptitient  had  done  him  a  great  wrong 
by  dismissing  him  on  the  ground  that,  had  it  not  been  for 
his  medicines,  the  patient  would  have  died,  and  that,  justly 
and  out  of  gratitude,  the  physician  should  be  retained  and 
permitted  to  make  a  daily  visit,  which  should  be  duly  paid 
for.  Would  not  such  a  proposition  be  considered  ridiculous  ? 
Still  the  case  is  similar  to  that  of  the  Government  paying 
the  National  Banks  for  doing  things  which  have  become 
unnecessary.  Again,  suppose  a  nurse  should  call  upon  one  of 


20  BANKS. 

the  bankers  and  say  :  "  Sir,  you  have  done  me  a  great  wrong. 
"  You  have  discharged  me,  and  that  too  in  the  face  of  the 
"  fact,  that  had  it  not  been  for  me  and  my  care,  you  would 
"  have  died  during  infancy.  Hence,  I  claim  that  my  pay  be 
«'  continued."  The  banker  would  probably  respond  :  "  True, 
"you  were  indispensable  during  my  infancy,  but  now  I  have 
"  no  further  use  for  you.  Your  bills  have  been  paid  (if  such 
"  be  the  fact) ,  and  you  have  no  just  claim  upon  me."  So  says 
the  Government  to  the  bankers  :  "  I  need  you  no  longer,  all 
"  your  expenses  have  been  paid,  which  is  a  fact,  and  you 
"  have  therefore  no  just  claim  upon  me."  I-  have  tried  to 
show  that  doctors,  nurses,  and  the  bankers  are  indispensable 
appendages  to  sick  men,  children,  and  weak  governments, 
but  are  useless  appendages  to  healthy  matured  men  and 
prosperous  governments.  Hence,  if  the  bankers  demand 
that  the  Government  continue  the  useless  National  Banking 
system,  then  the  Government  can  justly  demand,  that  those 
gentlemen  retain  their  useless  doctors,  pay  for  their  visits, 
take  their  quinine  for  ague,  although  they  have  no  ague. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  think,  that  my  idea  is  absurd, 
but  I  will  suppose  another  case  :  That  of  a  man  who  owns  a 
house  and  lot  of  ground,  all  paid  for ;  he  falls  ill,  is  com- 
pelled to  give  up  his  business  or  employment,  and  earns  no 
money  for — say  one  year.  His  doctor's  bills  are  heav}',  but 
they  must  be  paid,  and  he  finds  himself  in  debt ;  so  he  goes 
to  a  money  lender,  and  placing  a  deed  of  trust  upon  his 
property,  borrows  one  thousand  dollars  for  one  year  at  six 
per  cent  interest.  At  the  end  of  the  year,  having  recovered 
his  health  and  retrieved  his  fortunes,  he  wishes  to  pay  off  the 
debt,  and  release  his  property  from  the  incumbrance  upon  it, 
but  the  holder  of  the  debt  refuses  to  permit  any  such  arrange- 
ment, claiming  that  the  loan  should  be  continued  indefinitely, 
since  it  had  been  of  so  much  benefit  to  the  man,  while  he  was 
in  need.  Would  not  that  be  considered  ridiculous?  and  yet 
it  is  no  more  ridiculous  than  the  action  of  the  National 
Banks  in  demanding  a  continuance  of  their  sway. 


RAILROADS.     .  31 


RAILROADS. 


RAILROADS  VERSUS  CANALS. 

I  do  not  propose  to  assert  that  the  perfecting  of  the  canal 
system  can  do  away  with  the  railroads,  which  I  consider  the 
greatest  blessings  that  have  fallen  to  our  lot:  that-is  to  say, 
when  they  are  restrained  by  wise  laws.  Railroads  open  up 
new  countries,  relieve  the  cities  of  their  surplus  labor,  offer 
employment  to  thousands  of  idle  hands,  and  exercise  a 
marked  and  beneficial  influence  upon  the  prices  and  supply 
of  provisions,  and  in  this  way  benefit  the  poorer  classes 
directly.  When  the  crops  fail  in  one  section  of  the  country, 
the  railroads  can,  at  low  rates,  and  in  a  very  short  time, 
remedy  the  deficiency  by  bringing  provisions  from  those  sec- 
tions of  the  country  which  have  harvested  abundant  crops  ; 
again  protecting  the  poorer  classes  from  those  high  prices, 
which  inevitably  follow  scarcity.  Railroads  have  answered 
the  purpose  better  than  soldiers,  in  subduing  the  Indian, 
who  always  retires  before  the  advance  of  the  iron  rails.  Rail- 
roads are  the  civilizers  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  do 
more  towards  establishing  the  doctrine  of  "  Peace  on  earth 
and  goo'd  will  towards  men,"  than  all  the  so-called  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  who  claim  to  be  the  followers  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles  ;  but  it  is  not  a  fact.  Of  late  years  it  has  become 
the  habit  of  the  clergy  of  one  denomination  to  ridicule  or 
denounce  the  followers  of  other  religious  doctrines.  Some 
go  so  far  as  to  denounce  as  heretics,  all  those  who  worship 
God  contrary  to  their  ideas  of  form  or  ceremonial,  and  for 
this  reason  their  preaching  is  rather  favorable  to  "  war  on 
earth  and  ill  will  towards  men,"  than  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 
Hence  I  contend  that  the  teachings  of  the  clergy  result  in 
more  harm  than  good,  for  while  they  preach  charity,  they 
act  in  a  very  different  spirit. 


22  HAILBOADS. 

That  there  are  good  and  holy  men  among  the  clergy,  I 
admit,  and  I  only  allude  to  those,  who,  under  the  garb  of 
religion,  and  as  followers  of  our  Lord,  ignore  his  one  great 
commandment:  "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  If  we 
are  desirous  of  having  others  embrace  our  religious  ideas, 
then  we  must  show  by  our  acts  that  those  ideas  are  worthy 
of  adoption. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  we  could  introduce  our  "  Pullman 
Sleepers,"  those  models  of  comfort,  upon  the  European  rail- 
ways. We  sent  one  over ;  it  was  seen,  tested,  and  pro- 
nounced good ;  all  the  talk  in  the  world  could  not  have 
accomplished  the  result  of  that  experiment.  It  was  adopted 
in  those  countries.  Where  government  exercises  control  over 
the  pulpit ,  no  doctrine  is  permitted  save  that  which  teaches 
loyality  to  the  crown,  as  the  first  great  law  of  Christianity. 
So  long  as  the  clergy  obey  the  dictates  of  their  masters,  they 
are  well  paid  and  fed ;  but  let  them  once  question  the  divine 
right  of  kings,  and  they  are  dismissed.  What  other  infer- 
ence can  be  drawn  than  that  such  men  are  unworthy.  To  such 
influences  may  be  attributed  the  birth,  in  Europe,  of  those 
great  societies — the  Communists  and  Nihilists, — whose  acts 
have  already  caused  so  much  apprehension  upon  the  part  of 
the  crowned  heads.  Hence  I  may  state  that  the  influence  of 
the  clergy  is  to  keep  people  apart,  while  that  of  the  railroad, 
is  to  bring  them  together,  and  by  teaching  them  each  others 
necessities,  to  promote  good  fellowship.  The  locomotive 
which  Commodore  Perry  took  with  him  to  Japan,  did  more 
towards  promoting  and  establishing  good  will  between  that 
empire  and  the  United  States,  than  all  the  missionaries  com- 
bined. I  am  an  advocate  of  religion,  since  it  restrains  men 
from  the  commission  of  those  acts  which  are  hurtful  to 
society.  When  Henry  VI.,  King  of  England,  asked  as  to 
whether  masons  were  better  than  other  men,  he  was  answered 
in  the  quaint  language  of  those  early  days  :  "  Some  masons 
are  not  as  virtuous  as  some  udher  men,  but  in  the  most  part, 
they  be  more  good  than  they  would  be,  if  they  were  not 
masons."  That,  is  as  it  reads  in  a  manuscript  found  by  John 


RAILROADS.  23 

Locke  in  the  celebrated  Bodleyan  Library,  and  the  same 
remark  is  equally  applicable  to  religion. 

His  uame  is  Locomotive — first  appearing  in  England  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  His  mission  is  that  of  an  equalizer  of 
the  cost  and  distributer  of  the  products,  and  opener  of 
new  lands  for  the  over-crowded  portions  of  the  earth.  He 
has  opened  the  continents  of  America  and  Europe,  and  ere 
long  will  connect  Pekin  and  St.  Petersburg,  Paris  and  Rome. 
Then  will  the  people  of  all  nations  come  together  to  trade ; 
they  will  learn  each  others  ways  and  religious  ideas,  from 
which  interchange  good  must  result.  The  Locomotive  may 
be  called  the  Third  Christ,  for,  like  the  First,  he  was 
received  at  his  advent  with  shouts  of  derision,  succeeded  by 
cries  of  welcome  and  joy.  The  telegraph  may  be  called  his 
"  John  the  Baptist,"  who,  penetrating  the  wilderness,  tells 
the  people  that  he  is  coming — the  great  Locomotive. 

If  a  President  or  a  member  of  Congress  be  guilty  of  a  wrong, 
it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Constitution.  If  a  Christian  do 
wrong,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Bible.  If  a  Jew  do  wrong, 
it  is  not  the  fault  of  Moses.  If  a  Mason  do  wrong,  it  is  not 
the  fault  of  the  Order,  and  if  a  railway  magnate  does  'wrong, 
it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Locomotive. 

As  before  stated,  the  railroad  brings  people  from  all 
nations  together,  people  who  are  necessarily  of  different  tem- 
peraments, people  whose  education  and  ideas  of  politics  and 
religion,  and  whose  ways  of  life  are  all  different ;  but  by  asso- 
ciation they  will,  in  time,  assimilate  and  learn  each  others 
characters.  Hence,  I  affirm  that  railroads  are  a  great  benefit 
to  mankind,  but  unless  they  are  controlled  by  wise  laws,  they 
may  prove  a  curse,  and  will  oppress  the  people,  by  swallow- 
ing up,  in  high  tariff,  the  profit  of  the  farmer,  the  laborer,  and 
the  mechanic,  leaving  them  but  a  small  percentage  of  their 
products. 

If  a  man  owns  a  coal  mine,  iron  mines,  or  valuable  quar- 
ries, and  is  compelled  to  ship  by  rail,  in  order  to  reach  a 
market,  it  is  likely  that  the  railroad  company  will  put  on  as 
high  a  tariff  as  the  freight  will  stand ;  but  if  the  miner 


24  RAILROADS. 

should  stop  his  shipments  on  account  of  the  high  rates,  then 
the  company  will  make  special  reduced  rates,  so  as  to  con- 
tinue in  receiving  benefit  from  the  business.  Or  again,  the 
railway  companies  by  an  imposition  of  high  rates,  may  seek 
to  drive  the  owners  from  working  their  mines,  in  order  that 
they  may  send  in  their  agents  to  purchase  them,  to  be  ope- 
rated for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  corporation.  Or  again,  sup- 
pose the  price  of  wheat  per  bushel  is  $1.00  in  St.  Louis  and 
Chicago  and  the  freight  to  either  city  from  the  interior  of 
Kansas  is  the  same — say  twelve  cents  per  bushel ;  now  if 
wheat  should  advance  five  cents  per  bushel  in  St.  Louis,  the 
farmer  would  wish  to  ship  to  that  city,  in  order  to  derive  the 
benefit  of  the  advance,  but  the  railroad  will  at  once  advance 
the  rates  of  freight  two  cents  per  bushel,  so  that  it  only  bene- 
fits the  farmer  three  cents.  If  a  locomotive  runs  over  a 
farmer's  cow,  then  the  farmer  has  ground  for  action  in  the 
courts  for  damages  against  the  railroad,  on  account  of  the 
track  not  being  fenced  in.  But  let  the  railway  companies 
once  get  control  of  the  Legislatures,  and  it  is  only  a  question 
of  time,  unless  they  are  checked  in  their  encroachments  in 
that  direction,  and  the  farmer  may  not  only  whistle  for 
the  value  of  his  cow,  but  he  may  even  be  made  liable  to  the 
railroad  for  damages,  because  he  (the  farmer)  did  not  fence 
in  his  cow. 

Railroad,  companies  are  now  required  by  law  to  pay  county 
taxes — the  same  as  other  residents  or  resident  companies — 
but  once  in  control  of  the  Legislature,  they  will  probably 
try  to  pass  an  act  to  exempt  railroads  from  county  taxation, 
on  the  ground  of  their  being  public  benefits.  Even  now  it 
is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  see  accounts  in  the  daily  news- 
papers, of  where  railroads  are  striving  through  the  courts  to 
avoid  the  payment  of  their  county  taxes.  It  is  affirmed  by 
the  press  that  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  owns  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  of  California,  and  from  the  nature  of  the 
laws  and  charters  that  have  been  passed,  the  people  are  war- 
ranted in  giving  credence  to  the  statement. 

Will  they  stop  at  Legislatures  ?  May  they  not  soon  attempt 


RAILROADS.  25 

to  control  the  Government  itself,  and  the  judges  of  the 
United  States  Courts  and  the  press?  For  those  who  are 
ambitious  will  stoop  to  any  act,  by  means-of  which  the  object 
of  their  ambition  may  be  obtained.  It  may  occur  in  the 
course  of  time,  that  a  convention  of  railroad  presidents  will 
be  called  for  the  purpose  of  nominating  a  man  for  the  presi- 
denc}r  of  the  United  States,  who  will  obligate  himself,  if 
elected,  to  appoint  to  office  such  men  as  may  be  recommended 
by  railway  managers  (see  Appendix  "D").  With  the 
prosecuting  attorneys  and  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and 
other  courts  of  the  United  States  in  the  interest  of  the  great 
corporations  and  syndicates,  the  next  step  will  be  a  refusal 
to  pay  either  State,  county,  or  city  taxes,  and  no  interference 
from  State  Legislatures  with  their  charters  will  be  tolerated. 
One  would  suppose  a  railroad  charter  to  be  a  sacred  instru- 
ment, in  that  only  recently  a  judge  of  the  St.  Louis  courts 
held,  that  if  a  charter  was  granted  by  the  Legislature,  the 
State  must  protect  it,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  evidence 
might  be  brought  forward  to  prove  that  such  charter  had  been 
obtained  by  fraud.  The  case  was  one,  in  which  it  was 
undertaken  to  prove  that  a  street  railroad  company's  charter 
had  been  obtained  by  fraud — the  judge  ruling  out  the  evi- 
dence on  the  above  grounds.  I  have  no  desire  to  impugn 
the  motives  of  the  judge  who  so  decided,  but  I  do  wish  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  fact,  that  under  that 
decision  a  charter  is  a  more  sacred  instrument  than  the  con- 
tract of  marriage,  for  the  latter  can  be  set  aside  and  declared 
null  and  void,  if  a  fraud  be  proven.  How  easy  a  matter 
then,  to  accept  the  above-mentioned  case  as  a  precedent. 
Should  the  railroad  party  succeed  in  electing  a  President,  you 
may  expect  to  see  judges  appointed,  who  will  be  in  the 
interest  of  the  railroads,  and  Congress  will  be  powerless. 
The  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  pass  upon  the  constitution- 
ality of  laws,  and  the  President,  the  army,  and  the  navy  are 
sworn  to  support  and  sustain  the  Constitution,  and  the  laws 
of  the  United  States  as  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court.  So 
that  it  will  be  an  easy  matter  for  the  railroads  to  ride  over 
the  will  of  the  people. 


26  EAILKOADS. 

Can  we  recall  to  mind  any  act,  upon  the  part  of  the  great 
railway  corporations,  that  should  be  viewed  with  distrust  and 
alarm  by  the  people  ?  I  think  we  can.  During  the  Chicago 
convention,  it  was  publicly  announced  by  the  press  that  "Jay 
Gould"  was  on  his  way  thither,  accompanied  by  Bluiue  and 
delegates,  to  beat  Grant.  When  Gould  found  it  impossible  to 
nominate  Blaine,  he,  being  a  railroad  man  and  faster  than  a 
soldier,  switched  off  to  a  side  track  during  a  recess,  hitched 
his  Elaine  delegates  to  Mr.  Gartield,  and  pulled  him  through 
the  convention,  to  the  infinite  disgust  and  chagrin  of  the 
"  Third  Termers." 

As  to  the  influence  of  railroads  over  judges  of  the  United 
States  courts  see  Appendix  "  D."  See  what  the  New  York 
correspondent  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press  has  to  say  concern- 
ing the  action  of  Conkling,  in  a  suit  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Bailroad  Company,  pending  in  the  U.  S.  Court,  for  the 
recovery  of  $500,000.00  taxes  paid  under  protest. 

I  shall  now  endeavor  to  inventory  and  point  out  the  power 
of  these  great  corporations,  show  what  they  may  effect  by 
combining  with  the  party  in  power,  or  independent  of  that 
party,  how  they  can  nominate  and  elect  their  own  man  ;  for 
a  campaign  fund  of  $25,000,000.00  and  one-ninth  of  the 
popular  vote  is  not  a  bad  nucleus.  In  the  meantime  the 
people  are  supposed  to  be,  and  are,  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
they  are  voting  for  a  railroad  candidate. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1881,  there  were  93,898 
miles  of  completed  railroad  in  the  United  States  and  Terri- 
tories, according  to  the  Chicago  Railway  Age,  and  the 
number  of  men  employed  on  the  roads  per  mile  was  eleven, 
according  to  the  report  of  the  railroad  commissioner  of 
Illinois  to  the  Legislature  of  that  State,  under  date  of  Jan- 
uary 15th,  1881.  According  to  this,  there  are  1,032,878 
men  in  the  employ  of  the  railways,  and  an  assessment  of 
$25.00  per  man  would  yield  a  fund  of  $25,821,950.00  for 
campaign  purposes ;  this  statement  does  not  include  street 
railways,  which  may  be  counted  upon  for  co-operation.  In 
the  civil  service  of  the  United  States  Government  there  are 


RAILROADS.  27 

100,000  men,  who  have  been  assessed  at  an  average  of  $25.00 
per  man,  by  which  means  a  campaign  fund  of  $2,500,000.00 
was  realized  ;  so  that  with  the  Government  and  the  railroads 
— irrespective  of  the  street  car  companies — a  campaign  fund 
of  $28,321,950.00  can  be  raised.  As  the  $25.00  assessment 
is  usually  begun  about  twelve  months  previous  to  an  election, 
and  is  payable  in  installments,  they  find  it  cheaper  to  pay 
than  to  resist.  The  number  of  railway  and  civil  service  em- 
ployees is  1,132,878  ;  and  as  the  popular  vote  of  1880  was 
9,192,595,  it  is  seen  that  the  railway  and  civil  service,  or  pool 
vote,  was  fully  one-ninth  of  it.  Little  could  be  said  in  praise 
of  the  managers  of  a  party,  if,  with  a  campaign  fund  of 
twenty  eight  million  dollars,  and  one-ninth  of  the  popular 
vote  fully  assured  to  them,  they  were  unable  to  elect  the 
man  of  their  party.  When  this  is  considered,  it  is  easy  to 
calculate  the  enormous  strength  of  the  party  in  power,  which 
can  only  be  broken  by  electing  a  President  for  six,  instead 
of  four  years,  who  is  to  serve  but  one  term,  and  who  can 
never  be  eligible  for  re-election  to  the  same  office.  Let  him 
retire  to  private  life  upon  a  pension  of  $10,000.00  per 
annum,  to  continue  during  his  life,  or  that  of  his  widow. 
This  will  be  an  inducement,  for  the  president  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  his  office  honorably  ;  and  will  obviate  the  necessity 
of  his  being  compelled  to  sign  fraudulent  railroad  charters, 
in  order  that  he  may  secure  a  competency  for  his  children, 
in  the  shape  of  presents  of  stock  in  the  companies  working 
under  these  fraudulent  charters. 

Let  us  adopt  the  river  improvement  and  the  ship  canal 
schemes ;  and,  above  all,  let  us  use  our  energies  to  preserve 
the  integrity  of  the  judiciary.  We  must  look  to  the  courts 
for  means  to  defeat  the  illegal  acts  of  presidents,  congress- 
men, governors,  and  legislators.  An  act  passed  by  a  Legis- 
lature, or  by  Congress,  for  the  benefit  of  the  few,  and  to  the 
injury  of  the  people,  may  be  repealed;  but  the  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  be  they  in  the  interest  of  the  people  or 
in  that  of  the  great  companies,  must  stand,  and  the  President, 
with  the  army  and  navy,  is  sworn  to  support  them,  and  the 


28  RAILROADS. 

people  are  without  redress.  The  people  have  no  one  but 
themselves  to  blame,  if  these  things  come  to  pass,  because 
their  representatives  are  supposed  to  represent  them  truly. 
The  people,  since  the  war,  have  been  truly  represented,  for 
they  have  been  corrupt,  and  their  representatives,  in  order  to 
trulv  represent  their  constituents,  have  been  compelled  to  be 
corrupt  also.  Hence  the  people  have  no  ground  of  com- 
plaint. If  the  people  desire  a  change,  let  them  first  change 
themselves.  Let  them  substitute  vigilance  for  indifference, 
reason  and  Christian  charity  for  blind  prejudice,  and  honesty 
for  corruption,  then  they  will  be  more  careful  in  the 
selection  of  those  men  who  are  to  fill  the  public  offices. 
Railroad  companies  claim  that  they  only  desire  to  realize 
eight  per  cent  upon  the  cost  of  their  lines,  and  to  prove  it, 
they  show  the  cost  of  the  road,  its  expense,  and  receipts. 
This  is  done  in  order  to  convince  the  people  that  present 
rates  are  necessary  in  order  to  accomplish  that  result  (see 
Appendix « '  C  ") .  The  people  may  decline  to  pay  those  rates» 
affirming  themselves  to  be  willing  to  pay  such  rates  as  will 
net  the  present  owners  eight  per  cent  upon  their  investment, 
but  not  upon  those  portions  of  the  roads  that  were  built  at  the 
expense  of  the  people  or  the  Government.  The  Government 
donated  public  lauds  to  some  roads,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
counties,  and  cities,  and  towns  donated  right  of  way  and 
money.  Cities  and  counties  have  taken  stock,  and  the  man- 
agers have  worked  it  in  such  a  manner,  that  the  roads,  being 
sold  out  under  first  mortgages,  were  bought  in  by  the  man- 
agers, who  used  for  that  purpose  the  earnings  of  the  roads ; 
in  other  words,  these  managers  succeeded  in  managing  the 
people  out  of  their  stock,  and  now  own  the  roads,  at  about 
one-half  the  original  cost,  and  the  people  are  expected 
to  pay  interest  upon  that  very  money  out  of  which  they  have 
been  swindled. 

Reliable  railroad  magazines  have  undertaken  to  show  the 
entire  cost  of  the  different  lines,  and  the  interest  has  been 
based  upon  these  reports.  It  is  now  in  order  for  some  one 
else  to  demonstrate  what  the  railroads  cost  their  present 


RAILROADS.  29 

owners  ;  what  the  interest  tit  eight  per  cent  will  be,  and  then 
the  people  will  realize  the  difference.  To  begin  with,  let  us 
consider  the  Pacific  railroads,  what  tariff  it  is  necessary  to 
impose  upon  their  travel,  in  order  to  net  the  investors  eight 
per  cent.  The  42d  Congress  appointed  a  committee,  who 
made  careful  enquiry  into  the  cost  of  the  Pacific  railroads, 
and  the  report  was  as  follows  : 

"  First. — We  find,  not  one  dollar  was  ever  risked  in  the 
payment  of  stock  subscribed  to,  which  was  required  by  law 
to  be  paid.  Second. — We  find  that  the  whole  cost  of  con- 
struction was,  in  round  numbers,  $50,000,000.  Third. — The 
companies  received  $54,000,000.00  in  bonds  or  $4,000,000.00 
more  than  enough  to  build  and  equip  the  road.  Fourth. — 
We  find  a  stock  and  bonded  account  amounting  to  upwards 
of  $113,000,000.00,  or  a  profit  to  the  companies  of  about 
$63,000,000.00  above  the  cost  of  construction.  Hence — 

Received  Bonds  from  the  Government $    54,000,000  00 

Received  from  sale  of  Stock  and  Bonds 113,000,000  00 

Received  from  sale  of  Donated  Lands  up  to 

February,  1881 36,000,000  00 

Land  not  sold,  $43,000,000  acres,  at  $2.50 

per  acre 107,500,000  00 


Total $310,500,000  00 

Deduct  whole  cost  of  Roads 50,000,000  00 


Gain  to  present  owners— The  Road  and $260,000,000  00 

which  amounts  to  an  assessment  of  $5.18  per  capita  of  pres-< 
ent  population.  The  English  Government  has  never  be- 
stowed a  pension  upon  any  of  her  privileged  class,  that  cai} 
compare  with  the  amount  given  these  Pacific  railroad  gentry 
So,  whither  are  we  drifting? 

The  $63,000,000.00,  over  and  above  the  cost  of  the  Road, 
as  represented  in  the  bonded  indebtedness  of  $113,000,- 
000.00,  can  not  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  legitimate  debt 
due  by  the  road ;  since  it  is  in  excess  of  the  cost  and  equip- 
ment, but  it  was  necessary  for  some  one  to  hold  the  first 


30  RIVERS. 

mortgage,  in  order  to  bar  the  Government's  second  lieu,  and 
therefore,  with  the  earnings  of  the  road,  they,  the  managers, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  were  the  officials  of  the 
roads,  sold  to  themselves  as  private  parties,  the  first  mort- 
gage bonds.  It  may  be  thought  that  in  the  near  future, 
other  roads  entering  California  and  San  Francisco  will  have 
the  effect  to  break  down  the  monopoly  that  has  been  enjoyed 
for  so  long  a  time  by  the  Central  Pacific  ;  but  this  is  not  the 
case,  for  the  latter  road  controls  San  Francisco,  as  the  "  Turk 
does  Jerusalem,"  and  as  all  Christians  entering  that  city  pay 
tribute  to  the  Turk,  so  will  no  person  be  able  to  enter  San 
Francisco  without  paying  toll  to  the  Central  Pacific.  Stan- 
ford &  Co.  control  all  the  railroads  entering  San  Francisco, 
as  well  as  nearly  all  the  steamships  and  city  railways. 

The  cost  of  the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad  from  St.  Louis  to 
Pilot  Knob  was  nearly  $4,000,000.00.  It  was  sold  by  the 
State  for  $1,350,000.00. 

The  Missouri  Pacific  cost  over  $6,000,000.00  and  was  sold 
by  the  State  for  $3,500,000.00  and  so  on,  all  over  the  coun- 
try and  the  people  were  inevitably  the  losers;  hence,  the 
people  object  to  paying  interest  upon  money  that  they  have 
virtually  lost ;  but  they  are  willing  to  pay  8  per  cent  on  such 
amounts  as  the  roads  have  actually  cost  the  present  owners. 
The  Government  should,  therefore,  establish  rates  on  the 
Pacific  Road  from  Omaha  to  San  Francisco,  on  a  basis  of 
$60,000,000.00  as  the  cost  of  the  road. 


RIVERS. 


RIVER  IMPROVEMENT  SCHEME. 

The  total  amount  of  money  in  circulation  on  the  first  day 
of  January,  1881,  was  $1,321,552,797.00,  or  $26.35  per 
capita.  According  to  the  "  London  Economist,"  of  January, 

X 


BIVEBS.  31 

1879,  Prance  had  a  circulation  of  $27.37  1-2  per  capita  ;  and 
we  think  that  this  country  with  its  enormous  business,  could 
safely  increase  its  circulation  $5.65  per  capita  in  excess  of 
France  without  incurring  danger  from  inflation. 

It  would  require  an  additional  issue  of  $183,023,703.00  to 
increase  our  per  capita  rate  from  $26.35  to  $30,00  per  capita. 
Therefore  let  the  Government  issue  this  amount,  and  retire  a 
similar  amount  of  five  per  cent  bonds,  and  with  the  interest 
saved  upon  these  bonds,  improve  the  rivers  of  the  country. 

The  interest  ^aved  would  amount  annually  to  $9,151,- 
185.00  which  should  be  divided  into  three  equal  parts  of 
$3,050,393.00  each,  and  if  those  bonds  were  to  run  50  years, 
the  interest  would  amount  to  $457, 559, 450. 00  and  that  again 
would  be  divided  into  three  equal  parts  of  $152,519,816.00 
each.  Then  separate  or  class  the  rivers  under  three  grand 
divisions  :  The  Mississippi  Valley  Division,  Pacific  Division, 
and  the  Atlantic  Division,  to  each  of  which  would  be  applied 
annually  as  above  stated  the  sum  of  $3,050,393.00  for  pro- 
viding rivers  with  permanent  banks,  and  building  locks  and 
dams  for  slack  water  navigation,  if  necessary — it  being  under- 
stood that  the  main  rivers  of  each  division  are  to  receive 
attention,  first : — say  the  Mississippi  from  New  Orleans  to 
Alton,  111.  ;  then  the  Ohio  from  Cairo  to  Pittsburg;  next  the 
Mississippi,  from  Alton  to  St.  Paul ;  then  the  Missouri  from 
its  mouth  to  Sioux  City ;  next  Red  River  from  its  mouth  to 
the  North  Fork ;  then  the  Ajjkansas  from  its  mouth  to  Wich- 
ita, Kansas ;  and  next  the  Cumberland  to  Nashville,  and  the 
Tennessee  to  Florence,  Ala.  The  same  plan  should  be  pur- 
sued in  each  division,  so  that  the  most  important  parts  of  the 
main  rivers  may  be  improved  first ;  and  when  that  has  been 
done,  go  back  and  complete  the  improvement  to  the  head- 
waters of  each  river.  If  it  be  found  necessary  to  construct 
darns  and  locks,  the  Government  to  exact  the  amount  of  toll 
necessary  to  keep  the  same  in  repair,  and  cover  the  expense 
of  management.  If,  at  the  expiration  of  fifty  years,  the  sys- 
tem of  improvement  has  not  been  fully  completed,  then  the 
Government  should  make  further  application  of  the  interest 
accruing  from  the  retired  bonds. 


32  INFLATION. 

Such  a  system  could  not  be  a  burden  upon  the  people  ;  it 
would  furnish  employment  to  thousands  of  idle  hands,  and 
not  only  this,  but  future  generations  would  derive  the  ben- 
efit resulting  from  cheap  transportation,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
it  would  act  as  a  wholesome  check  upon  railroad  monopolies. 

I  will  enumerate  the  rivers  to  constitute  the  three 
divisions : 

The  Mississippi  Valley  division  to  consist  of  all  rivers 
that  flow  into  or  out  of  either  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributa- 
ries, the  Sabine  River  and  its  tributaries. 

The  Pacific  division  to  consist  of  all  rivers  that  flow  into 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  Gulf  of  California,  and  also  to  include 
the  Texas  streams,  not  otherwise  mentioned. 

The  Atlantic  division  to  embrace  all  rivers  not  tributary 
to,  and  East  of  the  Mississippi. 


INFLATION. 


Such  a  scheme  would  do  away  with  much  sectional  strife, 
and  would  relieve  Congress  of  the  continued  wrangles  over 
river  appropriations.  Of  course,  the  national  banks  and 
their  henchmen  will  oppose  this  scheme,  upon  the  ground  of 
the  danger  of  inflation,  just  as  they  opposed  the  Greenback 
party  a  year  ago.  They  were  right  in  opposing  that  party, 
because,  according  to  their  doctrine,  there  was  no  fixed 
limit  to  the  issue  of  paper  money,  and  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  would  be  attended  with  disaster.  But  this  scheme  pro- 
vides for  an  issue  of  only  $32.00  per  capita.  Still  it  would 
be  opposed  by  the  national  banks,  as  it  conflicts  with  their 
interests.  Every  resolution  that  has  been  offered  in  Congress, 
looking  towards  the  issue  of  a  fixed  amount  of  Legal  Tenders 
for  the  purpose  of  buying  up  United  States  bonds  has  been 
opposed. 

According  to  the  Comptroller's  report  of  January  1st,  1881, 


INFLATION.  3S 

I  will  show  that  the  national  banks  do  not  restrain  their  acts 
from  fear  of  inflation,  for  the  increase  of  National  Bank  cur- 
rency for  the  past  year  amounted  to  $2,258,727.00,  and  fifty 
nine  new  banks  were  organized  with  an  authorized  capital  of 
$7,673,066.00,  so  that  one  would  not  infer  that  the  banks 
fear  inflation.  When  the  national  banks  issue  paper  money 
they  call  it  furnishing  currency  for  commercial  transactions, 
but  when  the  Government  issues  paper  money  they  call  it 
INFLATION  ;  which  is  a  distinction  without  a  difference.  To 
illustrate  :  the  wife  of  a  plebeian  is  in  need  of  some  kind  of 
garment  which  her  husband  is  too  poor  to  purchase  ;  in  order 
to  obtain  it,  she  resorts  to  shop-lifting;  she  is  caught  in  the 
act,  arrested,  prosecuted,  convicted,  and  condemned  to 
imprisonment  for  stealing,  notwithstanding  that  her  husband 
has  offered  to  pay  the  shopkeeper  for  the  stolen  goods.  Now 
the  wife  of  a  rich  banker  commits  a  similar  offense.  She  is 
arrested  and  tried,  according  to  law;  the  pleading  is,  that  it 
is  not  a  clear  case  of  theft  (as  her  husband  is  rich),  it  is  as- 
scribed  to  mental  derangement,  and  it  is  called  by  the  name 
of  "kleptomania,"  and  the  lady  is  discharged,  and  her  hus- 
band pays  for  the  stolen  goods — the  difference  between 
kleptomania  and  theft  is,  that  one  is  greed  and  the  other  need. 
So,  for  the  Government  to  issue  Legal  Tenders,  it  is  called 
inflation,  but  for  the  National  Banks  to  do  identically  the  same 
thing>  it  is  called  supplying  the  country  with  currency. 

So  long  as  the  circulating  medium  is  kept  within  the  limit 
of  $32.00  per  capita,  there  is  no  danger  of  inflation.  As 
before  stated,  France  has  $27.37  1-2  and  England  has  even 
more.  Fix  the  limit  at  $32.00  by  act  of  Congress,  and  make 
the  Legal  Tenders  receivable  for  all  private  and  public  debts, 
except  the  interest  on  the  bonded  debt,  which  is  payable  in 
coin,  also  make  them  receirable  to  the  extent  of  fifty  pei 
cent  of  duties  on  imports.  To  begin  the  year  1881  with, 
National  Bank  issue,  General  Grant  &  Co.  organized  ^ 
national  bank  in  New  York,  with  an  authorized  capital  of 
$3,000,000.00  and  no  complaint  of  inflation.  But  had  the 
Government  wanted  to  issue  $3,000,000.00  of  Legal  Tenders 


34  INFLATION. 

to  buy  up  and  destroy  the  same  amount  of  United  States 
bonds,  then  the  2095  national  banks,  that  are  now  in  ope- 
ration, the  officers  thereof  most  likely,  would  have  held  an 
indignation  meeting  and  cried  out  inflation.  These  men 
were  raised  as  pets,  and  the  people  are  asked  to  indulge 
them  in  their  hobbies. 

I  will  now  close  the  prosecution  of  tne  national  banks, 
and  will  submit  the  case  to  the  voters  of  the  United  States, 
for  their  consideration,  together  with  the  following  propo- 
sitions : 

First. — There  are  at  present  about  2100  national  banks  in 
operation,  with  an  issue  of  $350,000,000.00,  and  they  have 
on  deposit  with  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  about  $385,- 
000,000.00  worth  of  United  States  bonds,  drawing  on  an 
average  4  1-2  per  cent  interest  annually,  which  amounts  to 
$17,375,000.00,  and  allowing  twenty  men  to  each  bank,  and 
that  would  aggregate  42,000  men  engaged  in  the  National 
Bank  business.  The  population  of  the  United  States,  based 
upon  the  census  of  1880,  was  50,152,550  ;  and  now  the 
question  is,  whether  it  is  more  prudent  for  the  Government 
to  tax  50,110,550  of  her  citizens  to  the  amount  of  $17,375,- 
000.00  annually  to  pay  42,000  of  her  privileged  class  citi- 
zens to  do  that,  which  the  Government  can  do  herself,  or  to 
wind  up  the  national  banks  and  issue  her  own  Legal  Tenders 
in  lieu  thereof,  and  thus  Save  $17,375,000.00  annually  ;  and 
the  interest,  so  saved  annually,  to  be  expended  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  proposed  national  bank  ship  canals. 

A  republic  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  majority. 

A  monarchy  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  minority. 

And  therefore,  to  strengthen  a  republic,  it  is  necessary  to 
weaken  the  chartered  monopolies  and  privileged  class  gentry. 
Now,  Mr.  Voter,  you  are  a  juryman  in  this  case,  and  are 
requested  to  hand  in  your  verdict  at  the  next  presidential 
election,  and  before  presenting  your  ballot,  acquaint  yourself 
with  this  fact :  That  the  tax  of  the  country  is  principally  col- 
lected from  men,  directly  or  indirectly,  because  women  and 
minor  children  seldom  pay  taxes.  Therefore,  the  voters  are 


RIVER  IMPROVEMENTS.  35 

the  tax  payers,  and  as  there  were,  at  the  last  presidential 
election,  9,192,595  voters,  now  divide  the  $17,375,000.00 
that  is  annually  paid  to  national  banks  as  interest  on  their 
bonds,  by  the  number  of  voters  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  result  will  be  $1.89  for  each  voter;  and  then,  before 
dropping  your  ballot,  ask  yourself  this  question  :  Shall  I  vote 
for  the  Government  to  give  my  proportion  of  the  said  $17,- 
375,000.00  annually  to  a  privileged  class  gentry  to  spend  in 
enjoyments  at  Saratoga,  Long  Branch,  etc.,  etc.,  or  shall  I 
vote  for  the  Government  to  use  the  said  $17,375,000.00 
annually  in  constructing  the  proposed  national  bank  ship 
canals,  and  thereby  give  employment  to  the  idle  labor  of  the 
country,  furnish  cheap  transportation  to  the  farmer  and 
manufacturer,  and  be  an  offset  to  railroad  monopoly  ;  that 
ballot  will  help  decide  whose  funeral  this  will  be. 


RIVER  IMPROVEMENTS. 


LAND  GRANT  SHIP  CANAL  AND  RIVER  IMPROVE- 
MENT SCHEME. 

Provided,  that  in  those  States  where  the  following  canals 
are  to  be  constructed,  and  river  improvements  instituted ; 
the  United  States  Government  or  States  shall  donate  from 
the  public  lauds,  a  strip  five  miles  wide  upon  each  side  of 
the  rivers,  extending  from  their  mouths  to  their  head  waters. 
In  case  such  lauds  have  been  already  taken  up  along  those 
rivers,  then  an  equivalent  quantity  to  be  donated  in  some 
other  section  of  the  State. 

This  scheme  is  to  embrace  all  States  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  and  northeast  of  the  Mississippi  above  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  to  Lake  Superior.  The  funds  acquired  from  the 
sale  of  those  donated  lands,  in  connection  with  the  funds 
derived  from  the  $30.00  per  capita  plan,  designated  in  the 


36  BIVEB  IMPROVEMENTS. 

Mississippi- and  Pacific  Divisions  of  the  River  Improvement 
plan,  to  be  applied  to  improving  the  rivers  from  their  mouths 
to  their  head  waters.  When  it  becomes  necessary  to  build  a 
ship  canal,  in  order  to  connect  two  rivers,  then  the  Govern- 
ment shall  donate  strips  of  laud  ten  miles  wide  upon  each 
side  of  75  miles  below  the  head  waters  of  each  river,  includ- 
ing the  divide  between  the  two  rivers,  and  the  money  derived 
from  the  sale  of  these  lands  is  to  be  applied  to  building  the 
•canal,  which  is  to  begin  twenty-five  miles  below  the  head 
waters  of  each  river. 

The  River  Improvement  Fund  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Pacific  Divisions  to  be  applied  to  improving  those  rivers  to 
point  of  beginning  of  the  canals.  Convict  labor,  of  the 
States  or  Territories  to  be  benefited,  to  work  upon  the  canals 
at  the  expense  of  the  several  States.  None  of  the  donated 
lands  upon  these  routes  to  be  sold  to  any  one,  except  to 
actual  settlers.  The  land  to  be  sold  at  $2.50  per  acre,  and 
the  titles  or  letters  patent,  to  be  withheld  until  such  settlers 
have  resided  upon  said  lands  for  five  successive  years,  and 
they  shall  pay  for  the  lands  when  the  deeds  are  granted. 
If  a  man  settles  upon  a  tract  of  laud — and  he  shall  in  no  case 
enter  more  than  a  quarter  section,  or  160  acres — he  shall 
have  the  right  to  sell  out  to  some  other  settler,  and  the  latter 
shall  receive  credit  for  the  time  during  which  the  former 
occupied  the  laud.  The  settlers  upon  these  lands  shall,  after 
a  residence  of  three  years,  pay  an  annual  assessment  of  five 
cents  per  acre,  towards  the  construction  of  canals ;  such 
yearly  payments  to  continue  uutil  the  completion  of  the 
work. 

If  other  portions  of  these  lands  shall  be  devoted  to  other 
purposes  than  farming  or  grazing,  then  five  cents  per  front 
foot,  of  lots  300  feet  or  less  in  depth,  shall  be  collected 
towards  defraying  the  cost  of  canal  construction. 

Each  State,  wherein  the  proposed  rivers  and  canals  are  to 
be  impoved  or  constructed,  is  to  relinquish  to  the  general  Gov- 
ernment, all  jurisdiction  over  the  routes  which  are  to  be  public 
highways,  and  subjected  to  the  same  laws  and  regulations  as 


EIVEB  IMPEO  VEMENTS.  37 

govern  the  Mississippi  River ;  the  Government  to  charge 
lockage  for  passing  through  the  canals,  but  only  an  amount 
sufficient  to  cover  cost  of  management  and  repairs.  In  case 
valuable  deposits  of  mineral  be  found,  during  the  excava- 
tions, the  Government  is  to  reserve  the  right  of  working 
them  for  the  benefit  of  the  canal  construction.  There  shall 
be  a  roadway,  at  least  50  feet  wide,  upon  at  least  one 
bank  of  the  river  or  canal,  running  parallel  to  it,  and 
extending  its  entire  length ;  said  roadway  to  be  built  and 
kept  in  repair  by  the  counties  bordering  upon  the  route.  If 
any  State,  wherein  a  proposed  canal  is  to  be  constructed,  or 
a  river  to  be  improved,  refuses  to  comply  with  any  or  all  the 
above  conditions,  then  the  Government  shall  refuse  to  improve 
rivers  of  the  said  State  with  money  obtained  from  the  $30.00 
per  capita  plan.  Furthermore,  in  addition  to  that  strip  of 
land  5  miles  wide,  a  strip  one-half  mile  in  width,  running 
parallel  to  that  donation,  should  be  set  aside  in  common,  in 
order  that  trees,  where  there  are  none,  may  be  planted, 
and  a  belt  of  woodland  thus  be  perpetuated,  from  which  not 
only  the  settlers,  but  the  face  of  the  country,  would  derive 
incalculable  benefit.  These  strips  of  woodland  need  not 
necessarily  be  placed  along  the  outer  boundary  lines  of  the  5 
mile  donation,  but  had  better  extend  through  their  centers, 
either  equi-distant,  or  say  one-half  mile  upon  the  one  side 
and  one  and  a  half  miles  upon  the  other,  from  the  water  lines. 
If  these  schemes  appear  to  be  worthy  of  adoption,  U.  S. 
civil  engineers  should  be  detailed  to  survey  the  several  routes, 
and  if  the  money  provided  by  the  several  methods  herein 
specified  should  be  found  insufficient,  then  donate  more  land, 
or  construct  a  Ship  Railway  upon  Capt.  James  B.  Eads'  plan. 
It  would  be  much  more  simple,  and  certainly  less  expensive, 
to  construct  a  railway  adapted  to  the  transportation  of  river 
steamers,  than  for  ocean  going  steamers  or  sailing  vessels, 
as  the  latter  are  narrow  and  top-heavy,  requiring  very  strong 
tracks  and  cradles  in  order  to  insure  steadiness ;  while  river 
steamboats  are  flat-bottomed  and  not  top-heavy.  The  class  of 
boats  that  would  be  most  likely  to  run  upon  said  rivers  and 


38  RIVER  IMPROVEMENTS. 

canals,  would  be  stern-wheelers,  such  as  now  ply  upon  the 
Ohio  River. 

Take  the  steamer  "  Montana,"  for  example,  her  dimen- 
sions are  as  follows  :  250  feet  long,  48  feet  beam,  depth  of 
hold  5  feet,  carries  1,300  tons,  drawing  6  feet  of  water. 
The  " Montana,"  weighs  about  600  tons,  while  a  steamship, 
of  a  like  capacity,  weighs  about  1,000  tons.  So  it  is  evi- 
dent that  it  will  cost  much  less  to  build  a  ship  railway  for 
river  boats,  than  for  either  ocean  steamers  or  sailing  vessels  ; 
so  that  if  it  is  not  practicable  to  build  ship  canals  in  order  to 
connect  rivers,  why  build  ship  railways? 

I  will  now  propose 

««  THE  FORT  BENTON  AND  WALLA  WALLA  SHIP  CANAL  ROUTE.  " 

The  Government  to  donate  strips  of  laud  10  miles  wide  upon 
each  side,  from  Fort  Benton  on  the  Missouri  River,  to  Walla 
Walla  on  the  Columbia  River,  including  the  divide  between 
the  two  rivers.  Assume  the  distance  to  be  1,000  miles,  that 
would  give  12,800  acres  per  mile,  which  is  the  exact 
amount  that  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  and  the  Oregon 
Railroad  received  per  mile  for  over  350  miles  of  road ;  that 
Would  be  in  money,  at  the  rate  of  $2.50  per  acre,  $32,000.00 
per  mile,  and  the  5  cents  per  acre  tax  $640.00  per  mile, 
the  total  land  grant  for  the  distance  would  be  12,800,000 
acres,  which  at  $2.50  per  acre  would  aggregate  $32,000,- 
000.00.  The  5  cent  per  acre  tax  would  yield  $640,000.00 
per  annum,  or  $19,200,000.00  in  30  years.  The  5  cent  per 
foot  on  town  lots,  would  about  offset  those  lands  not  taken 
ftp.  It  should  take  30  years  to  complete  the  routes,  for  it 
Vould  be  unwise  upon  the  part  of  the  Government  to  rush 
public  works  that  would  afford  employment  to  so  many  men. 
The  available  convict  labor  of  Washington,  Idaho,  and  Mon- 
tana Territories,  amounts  at  present  to  about  600,  and  it  is 
safe  to  anticipate  an  annual  increase. 

So  soon  as  $1,000,000.00  shall  have  been  accumulated 
from  the  sale  of  donated  lands,  and  the  tax  of  5  cents  per 
acre,  the  Government  should  commence  the  system  of 
improvements,  beginning  with  the  Missouri  and  Columbia 


HIVES  IMPROVEMENTS.  39 

Rivers  from  Fort  Benton  and  Walla  Walla,  the  point  of 
beginning  of  the  canal;  convict  labor  to  be  employed 
upon  the  main  cut  through  the  mountains.  The  entire  route 
from  Walla  Walla  to  Fort  Benton,  to  be  classed  as  one  canal 
route.  The  initial  work  upon  this  route  will  attract  atten- 
tion, induce  immigration,  and  the  donated  lands  will  soon 
be  taken  up. 

The  head  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  Columbia,  are  about 
30  miles  distant  from  each  other  ;  a  man  standing  upon  the 
top  of  the  mountain  divide  being  able  to  see  both  rivers. 
The  class  of  boats  best  adapted  to  this  route,  is  similar  to 
those  plying  between  New  Orleans  and  Cincinnati,  i.  e., 
stern-wheelers,  300  feet  long,  45  feet  wide,  7  or  8  feet  depth  of 
hold,  total  width,  including  guards  50  feet,  height  from  keel 
to  top  of  officers  cabin — called  "  Texas" — 45  feet.  It  would 
be  necessary  for  these  boats  to  lower  their  chimneys  and 
remove  their  pilot-houses,  in  order  to  pass  through  the  canal- 
cut  tunnel.  They  could  be  towed  through  by  a  "  tug" 
cheaper  and  more  rapidly  than  they  could  make  the  run  with 
their  own  power,  since  they  could  not,  of  themselves,  attain 
a  rate  of  speed  sufficient  to  insure  steerageway ;  they  would 
be  continually  bumping  against  the  rocky  walls  of  the  canal, 
which  could  but  be  attended  with  diminution  of  speed,  and 
serious  injury  to  the  boats  themselves.  The  canal-cut  tunnel 
would  be  50  feet  wide,  and  45  feet  in  altitude,  which  is  an 
immense  hole  to  work  through  solid  rock,  as  it  would  be 
nearly  20  miles  in  length.  During  the  course  of  30  years, 
however,  the  convict  labor  of  these  Territories  could  drill  a 
hole  of  great  extent  through  solid  rock. 

It  is  fair  to  estimate  $20,000,000.00,  as  the  cost  of  improv- 
ing the  rivers  with  locks  and  dams,  to  insure  a  10-foot  gauge 
for  slack- water  navigation  from  Fort  Bentou  to  Walla  Walla, 
to  head  waters  at  canal  cut.  A  residue  of  $12,000,000.00, 
and  $640,000.00  per  annum  from\the  5  cent  per  acre  tax, 
would  remain  for  the  canal  cut.  The  time  has  arrived 
when  the  convict  labor  of  this  country  should  be  employed 
upon  public  improvements,  for  the  benefit  of  the  people, 


40  CONVICT  LABOR. 

instead  of  being  employed  by  private  contractors  for  manu- 
facturing purposes,  which  latter  course  works  to  the  disad- 
vantage and  positive  injury  of  the  honest  laboring  classes, 
who  are  forced  into  competition  with  it. 

If  after  the  canal-cut  tunnel  has  been  completed,  it  should 
be  found  necessary  to  enlarge  it,  the  work  could  be  done 
during  the  winter  months,  when  the  rivers  are  frozen  over,  by 
letting  out  the  water.  A  bed  or  space  might  also  be  cut  for 
the  accommodation  of  a  railway  track,  to  be  used  by  any  com- 
pany who  would  guarantee  to  the  Government,  such  pay  for 
the  use  of  it  as  Congress  would  adjudge  to  be  equitable  and 
just.  The  revenue  thus  accruing  to  be  applied  to  the  repair 
and  improvement  account  of  the  canal  and  rivers. 

Railroad  companies  should  not  be  prevented  from  con- 
structing a  road  from  Fort  Benton  to  Walla  Walla  on  line 
with  the  canal  and  river,  in  order  to  facilitate  transportation 
during  the  winter  season,  when  the  rivers  are  frozen  over. 


CONVICT  LABOR. 


To  return  to  convict  labor — there  are  at  present,  in  the  States 
and  Territories,  over  50,000  convicts,  which  number  is  being 
increased  daily.  If  the  plau  of  leasing  them  to  private  con- 
tractors, engaged  in  manufacturing,  be  persisted  in,  what, 
is  it  reasonable  to  suppose,  will  be  the  condition  of  the  hon- 
est mechanic,  in  ten  or  fifteen  years?  By  that  time,  the  num- 
ber of  convicts  may  be  estimated  at  about  100,000,  exclusive 
of  the  inmates  of  workhouses,  or  houses  of  correction  and.  of 
refuge,  and  the  damage  to  the  honest  mechanic,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  this  volume  of  cheap  penal  labor  into  the  manufac- 
turing field,  is  beyond  computation.  A  protective  tariff,  is 
only  in  the  interest  of  the  private  contractor,  and  there  will 
remain  but  one  way  by  which  the  honest  mechanic  can  procure 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  41 

food.  H;e  can  breakfast  upon  the  vote  which  he  has  cast  in 
favor  of  a  party  who  furnishes  him  a  * '  spread-eagle  "  speech 
on  protective  tariff;  for  dinner,  it  may  fill  his  stomach  with 
gas,  and  give  him  the  amount  of  courage  requisite  to  running 
around  hunting  up  honest  jobs,  which  he  may  not  find  ;  but 
he  may  find  a  policeman,  who  will  arrest  him  as  a  suspicious 
character,  and  upon  the  charge  of  having  ao  visible  means  of 
support,  he  may  be  sentenced  to  the  workhouse,  where  he 
will  receive  food,  and  as  a  convict,  work  for  the  private 
contractor.  O,  wise  laws  ! — I  do  not  assert  that  convict 
labor  will  monopolize  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the 
country,  but  I  do  assert,  that  it  may  absorb  that  interest  to 
such  an  extent,  that  it  will  compel  manufacturers,  who 
employ  other  labor,  to  reduce  their  scale  of  wages,  in  order 
that  they  may  enter  into  successful  competition  with  the  pro- 
duct of  convict  labor.  Furthermore,  it  is  only  a  question  of 
time,  and  we  will  see  rolling  mills  in  full  operation  at  the 
peniteritiaries.  Hence,  I  advocate  the  employment  of  con- 
vict labor  upon  public  works,  ship  canals,  etc.,  leaving  the 
manufactories  to  the  honest  working  man,  who  will,  in 
that  case,  see  some  benefit  accrue  to  himself  from  a  protect- 
ive tariff,  which  in  the  other  event,  as  far  as  his  interests 
are  concerned,  had  as  well  be  consigned  to  the  devil  at  once. 


PUBLIC  LANDS. 


When  the  Government  is  solicited  to  donate  her  lands  for 
the  construction  of  canals  and  the  improvement  of  river 
navigation,  it  can  in  no  wise,  be  considered  in  the  light  of 
asking  that  public  lands  be  given  to  private  parties  or  cor- 
porations, as  in  the  case  of  the  Pacific  Railroads.  Lands 
were  not  only  donated  to  those  roads,  but  $64,000,000.00 
in  the  shape  of  bonds.  In  addition  to  the  181,000,000 


42  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

acres  of  land  given  to  the  Pacific  Railroads,  the/jt  have  -a 
claim  on  61,907,000  acres  more.  On  January  1st,  1881, 
they  owed  the  Government,  principal  and  interest,  the  sum 
of  $79,994,572.00,  which  they  are  refusing  to  pay.  If  the 
Government  can  afford  to  give  181,000,000.00  acres  of  the 
best  land,  and  $64,000,000.00  in  money  to  the  Pacific  Rail- 
ways, to  say  nothing  of  the  millions  of  acres  donated  to 
other  railroads  and  private  parties,  it  certainly  can  not  object 
to  donate  lands,  with  a  view  toward  the  improvement  of  rivers 
and  the  construction  of  a  canal  system.  The  case  is  similar 
to  that  of  a  man  using  his  money  for  the  purpose  of  improv- 
ing his  own  property  for  his  own  benefit. 

In  petitioning  the  Government  to  donate  these  lauds  of  the 
people,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that  they  are  not  given 
away  for  nothing,  for  they  are  to  be  sold,  and  the  money 
obtained  is  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  Whereas, 
in  the  case  of  the  railroads,  no  equivalent  has  been  received. 

If  these  River  and  Canal  schemes  are  not  adopted,  then,  in 
the  course  of  time,  all  of  the  public  lands  will  have  been 
disposed  of,  the  money  spent,  and  nothing  will  remain  to 
show  for  it.  The  Pacific  Railroads  have  received  to  date, 
from  the  sale  of  public  lands,  $36,000,000.00. 

CANALS. 

The  Walla  Walla  and  Fort  Yuma  Ship  Canal  Route  via 
Lewis,  Snake,  and  Green  Rivers,  Salt  and  Utah  Lakes,  and 
the  Colorado  River.  Government  or  State  to  donate  lands 
15  miles  wide,  upon  each  side  of  said  route,  subject  to  the 
same  conditions  as  those  governing  the  donations  to  the 
Walla  Walla1  and  Fort  Benton  Route. 

The  Sioux  City  and  Red  River  of  the  North  Ship  Canal 
Route,  via  Big  Sioux  River,  Yellow  Bank  and  Minnesota 
Rivers.  Government  to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  upon  each 
side,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Sioux,  to  the  Red  River 
of  the  North.  This,  and  other  lands,  donated  for  the  purpose 
of  constructing  routes  hereinafter  set  forth,  to  be  subject  to 
the  same  conditions  as  those  governing  the  Walla  Walla  and 
Fort  Benton  Route. 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  43 

Des  Moines  City  and  Bed  River  of  the  North  Ship  Canal 
Route,  via  the  Des  Moines,  Wontonwan,  and  Minnesota 
Rivers.  Government  to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  upon 
each  skle  of  said  route. 

James  River  and  Sheyenne  River  Ship  Canal  Route,  via 
James  River,  Dakota  Territory.  Government  to  donate 
lands  10  miles  wide  upon  each  side,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
James  River  to  Sheyenne  River,  opposite  Devil's  Lake,  to 
improve  the  river  and  build  a  canal. 

James  River  and  Sheyenne  River  Ship  Canal  Route,  via 
Fort  Ransom  Reservation.  Government  to  donate  lands  15 
miles  wide  on  each  side  of  said  route.  A  25-mile  canal  will 
connect  the  two  rivers,  and  that  will  give  an  outlet  to  the 
Red  River  of  the  North,  into  the  Missouri  River  at  Yank- 
ton,  Dakota  Territory. 

Colorado  and  Rio  Grande  River  Ship  Canal  Route,  via 
Gila  or  San  Juan  and  Charmer  Rivers,  or  via  the  Rio  Chaco 
and  Puerto.  Government  to  donate  lands  20  miles  wide 
upon  each  side  of  the  route,  from  the  Colorado  River  to  the 
Rio  Grande. 

Minnesota  Lakes  Combination  Canal  Route — surveys  to  be 
made,  and  the  most  practicable  system  selected.  Govern- 
ment to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  upon  each  side  of  all 
rivers  and  lakes  that  may  be  considered  a  desirable  route  for 
commerce. 

Mississippi  River  and  Lake  of  the  Woods  Canal  Route, 
via  Sandy  Lake,  Savannah  Creek,  St.  Louis  River,  Ver- 
million  Lake,  Vermillion  River,  Rainy  Lake  and  Rainy  Lake 
River.  Government  to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  upon 
each  side  of  said  route,  in  order  to  improve  the  rivers 
and  lakes,  and  build  canals  to  connect  with  the  Mississippi 
River  and  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

If  a  surplus  should  exist  from  any  of  the  formerly  men- 
tioned proposed  canals,  then  the  said  funds  should  be  used 
to  construct  a  ship  canal  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  Lake 
Superior  via  Wisconsin  River,  with  branch  to  Lake  Michi- 
gan. This  route  could  be  utilized  as  a  feeder  to  the  Missis- 


44  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

sippi  Eiver,  since  the  Wisconsin  Hirer  at  its  mouth  is  25 
feet  below  Lake  Superior ;  said  surplus  also  to  be  used  for 
the  construction  of  the  Ohio  and  Ontario  ship  canal  route  via 
Pittsburgh  and  Rochester,  Alleghany  and  Genesee  Rivers, 
the  above  two  routes  to  be  constructed  and  managed  in  the 
manner  provided  for  the  national  bank  ship  canals. 

FREMONT'S  DRY  LAKE  SCHEME. 

Government  to  donate  1,500,000  acres  of  the  public  lauds, 
to  improve  Dry  Lake,  as  per  proposed  plan  of  Gen.  John  C. 
Fremont. 

San  Francisco,  Sacramento  and  Columbia  River  Ship  Canal 
Route,  via  Upper  Sacramento  River  to  North  Fork,  and 
canal  to  Goose  Lake,  then  canal  into  South  Fork  of  Aspara- 
gus River,  thence  into  the  East  Fork  of  Des  Chutes  River, 
thence  to  the  Columbia  River.  Government  or  State  to 
donate  lands  15  miles  wide  upon  each  side,  from  the  North 
Fork  of  the  Sacramento  River  to  the  Columbia  River. 

Willamette  River  Ship  Canal  Route.  Government  or 
State  to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  upon  each  side  of  the 
river,  from  its  mouth ;  connection  to  be  made  with  the  Sac- 
ramento and  Columbia  River  Route. 

Missouri  and  Rio  Grande  River  Ship  Canal  Route,  via 
the  Yellowstone  and  Powder  Rivers,  and  canal  to  North  and 
South  Platte,  via  Blue  River,  then  along  South  Platte  to  Beaver 
Creek,  thence  by  canal  into  Duck  Creek,  then  to  Arkansas 
River,  connecting  the  Arkansas  with  the  Canadian  River  by 
canal,  via  Los  Auimos  river,  and  connecting  the  Canadian 
with  the  Pecos  River  by  canal.  The  Government  and  the 
State  of  Texas,  to  donate  lands  15  miles  wide  on  each  side  of 
said  route,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone,  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Pecos  River. 

"  The  Missouri  and  Rio  Grande,"  "  The  Fort  Yuma  and 
Columbia  River,"  and  "The  Colorado  and  Rio  Grande 
River"  Ship  Canal  Routes,  can  not  be  completed  for  many 
years  to  come — possibly  not  during  our  day — but  the  Gov- 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  45 

ernment  should  survey  and  locate  the  routes,  and  designate 
the  lands  that  are  to  be  donated  for  these  improvements.  The 
money  derived  from  the  sale  of  those  lands,  to  be  invested 
in  State  bonds,  which  should  be  held  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  until  a  sufficient  amount 
having  been  accumulated  from  the  sales  of  land,  and  interest 
on  the  bonds  so  purchased,  it  would  justify  the  commence- 
ment of  the  work.  The  above  named  canals,  will  afford  an 
unlimited  water-power  for  manufacturing  purposes,  and  thus 
enable  the  manufacturers  to  pay  their  employes  living  wages, 
and  at  the  same  time,  enter  into  successful  competition  with 
foreign  manufacturers,  who  being  burdened  with  the  heavy 
expense  incidental  to  costly  motive  power,  are  compelled  to 
scale  their  wages  down.  If  the  Sank  and  St.  Louis  Rivers 
in  Minnesota,  were  improved  by  slack  water  locks  and  dams, 
they  could  also  furnish  motive  power  to  an  unlimited  number 
of  factories. 

Minneapolis  and  Red  River  of  the  North  Ship  Canal 
Route,  via  the  Mississippi  River,  Lake  Itaska,  wild  Rice 
River  or  Red  Lake  River.  Government  to  donate  lands  15 
miles  wide  upon  each  side,  from  Minneapolis  to  the  Red 
River  of  the  North. 

RED  RIVER  OF  THE  NORTH. 

The  Government  to  donate  lauds  10  miles  wide  upon  each 
side  from  the  line  of  the  British  possessions,  to  the  head 
waters  of  the  Minnesota  Rirer.  One  fourth  of  said  lands  to  be 
applied  to  the  Mississippi  and  Red  River  of  the  North  Ship 
Canal  Fund,  or  the  Minnesota  and  Red  River  of  the  North, 
to  be  classed  as  one  route. 

Lake  Superior  and  Mississippi  River  Ship  Canal,  via 
Fond  du  Lac,  St.  Louis  and  other  rivers.  Government  to 
donate  lauds  15  miles  wide  upon  each  side,  from  Fond  du 
Lac,  to  the  Mississippi  River.  By  completing  this  route, 
the  manufacturing  interests  of  Minnesota  will  derive  consider- 
able impetus  from  the  great  water-power  thus  afforded.  An 


46  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

outlet  from  Lake  Superior  to  Hudson  Bay,  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  will  be  obtained  by  the  completion  of  the 
routes  hereinbefore  and  those  hereinafter  to  be  mentioned. 

Kansas  City,  Topeka  and  Denver  Ship  Canal  Route,  via 
the  Kansas,  Republican,  and  Platte  Rivers.  Government  to 
donate  lands  15  miles  wide  upon  each  side  of  said  route, 
from  Topeka  to  Denver.  If  this  route  is  completed  and  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  Rivers  are  improved,  then  the 
farmers  of  the  States  of  Colorado,  Nebraska,  and  Kansas, 
along  said  route,  could  ship  grain  by  barge  to  New  Orleans, 
at  about  8  cents  per  bushel;  such  being  the  case,  the  agri- 
culturists along  this  route  could  well  afford  to  pay  the  annual 
tax  of  5  cents  per  acre,  because  they  would  save  at  least  10 
cents  per  bushel  on  their  grain,  by  cheap  transportation  the 
result  of  the  proposed  routes,  and  that  would  be  an  eqiva- 
lent  of  about  $2.00  per  acre,  and  this  scheme  only  asks  5 
cents  per  acre. 

The  Missouri  and  Red  River  of  the  North  Ship  Canal 
Route,  via  Goose  and  Cheyenne  Rivers,  thence  to  Missouri 
River,  at  some  point  between  Bismarck  and  Fort  Steven- 
son. Government  to  donate  lands  20  miles  wide  upon  each 
side  of  the  proposed  route,  from  the  Missouri  to  the  Red 
River  of  the  North,  reserving  a  strip  one-quarter  of  a  mile 
in  width,  parallel  to,  and  back  one  and  one-half  to  three 
miles  from  the  canal  or  river — this  reserve  to  be  held  in  com- 
mon forever — as  timber  and  grazing  land  for  the  benefit  of 
the  occupants  of  the  donation.  If  the  reserve  is  found  to 
be  bare  of  timber,  then  trees  should  be  planted,  first  at  the 
expense  of  the  River  and  Canal  Fund,  applied  to  that  route, 
and  kept  up  in  Dakota  by  that  fund,  until  the  Territory 
becomes  a  State  and  counties  are  organized,  when  the  county 
courts  will  take  charge  of  the  strip,  and  keep  it  planted  with 
timber  at  the  expense  of  the  occupants  of  the  donated  lands. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road, near  and  in  a  parallel  line  to  the  proposed  ship  canal, 
received  from  the  Government  as  a  free  gift  50,000,000  acres 
of  the  public  lands.  If  no  difficulty  is  experienced  in 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  47 

obtaining  an  adequate  supply  of  water  for  the  proposed 
canal,  it -will  greatly  benefit  Northern  Dakota,  for  in  that 
section  there  is  great  scarcity  of  wood  and  water,  on  account 
of  which  three  crops  out  of  five  fail.  The  timber  would 
increase  the  rain  fall  and  the  canal  would  irrigate  the  soil. 
In  order  to  drive  the  Indians  from  Dakota,  let  the  President 
issue  a  proclamation,  setting  forth  that  any  hostile  Indians 
found  within  the  Territory  will  be  sentenced  to  ten  years 
labor  upon  the  canals.  If  such  a  course  does  not  drive 
them  away,  the  compulsory  labor  may  civilize  them. 

The  Red  River  and  Rio  Grande  Ship  Canal  Route,  via  the 
Big  Wichita  to  the  RiojGrande  or  to  the  Pecos  River,  the 
line  to  be  east  of  the  headwaters  of  the  Brazos  and  Colorado 
Rivers.  The  State  of  Texas  to  donate  lands  15  miles  in  width, 
on  both  sides  of  the  route,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Wichita 
on  Red  River  to  the  end  of  the  route,  and  to  set  aside  a 
strip  of  land  one-half  mile  wide — same  as  the  Red  River  of 
the  North  and  Missouri  River  Canal — the  object  of  which  is 
identical  with  that  of  this  latter  proposed  route. 

Galveston  Bay  and  Red  River  Ship  Canal,  via  Trinity 
River.  Texas  to  donate  lands  10  miles  wide  on  each  side  of 
said  river  from  the  mouth  of  the  Trinity  River  to  Red  River. 
The  canal  to  be  built  from  fifty  miles  below  the  head  waters 
of  the  Trinity  to  Red  River.  The  River  Improvement  Fund 
of  the  Pacific  Division  to  be  used  for  improving  the  Trinity 
River  from  its  mouth  to  the  proposed  canal. 

It  is  not  intended  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  ship 
canals  should  be  located  just  as  the  routes  are  herein  desig- 
nated, but  surveys  should  be  made  in  order  to  determine  the 
most  practicable  route.  Texas  values  immigration  more 
than  she  does  her  lands,  and  the  proposed  ship  canal  and 
improvements  of  rivers  will  encourage  people  to  buy  the 
lauds.  As  a  proof  that  Texas  is  liberal  with  her  lands,  she 
offered  a  fixed  amount  of  public  lands  per  mile  to  any  com- 
pany that  would  build  railroads  in  the  State,  and  she  offered 
3,000,000  acres  to  any  one  that  would  build  a  State 
House — such  as  would  be  accepted  by  the  Legislature  ;  and 


48  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

the  Canal  and  River  Improvement  scheme  would  enrich  the 
State  as  much  as  a  railroad. 

The  proposed  ship  canal  schemes  ask  the  donation  of  pub- 
lic lands  for  the  public  good,  and  all  the  acres  asked  for 
will  only  about  balance  the  number  which  have  been  already 
granted  to  railroads.  For  every  canal  that  is  herein  pro- 
posed, there  is  a  subsidized  railroad  on  a  parallel  line  near 
to  it.  The  railroads  are  in  possession  of  the  choice  lands, 
because  they  located  their  lines  through  the  fertile  valleys, 
in  order  to  get  choice  lands,  for  they  very  well  knew  that  in 
the  course  of  time  the  money  derived  from  the  sale  of  laud 
would  more  than  amount  to  the  ordinal  cost  of  the  road. 
The  Pacific  railroads  have  received  already  $36,000,000.00 
from  the  sales  of  land,  and  still  they  arejiot  satisfied,  but 
are  evidently  trying  to  have  men,  who  are  in  the  railroad 
interest,  appointed  as  Judges  of  United  States  courts  ;  Judges 
who  will  hold  local  taxes  to  be  illegal.  As  the  law  is  now 
executed,  a  person  might  think  that  Congress  and  the  Legis- 
latures have  a  right  to  coifdemn  private  property  for  private 
benefit  and  public  injury. 

The  people  locating  on  the  canal  lauds  could  even  afford 
to  pay  the  annual  tax  of  five  cents  per  acre  toward  the  com- 
pletion of  the  routes,  as  it  would  take  35  years  for  the  pay- 
ments to  reach  the  cost  of  the  lands  of  the  Pacific  railroads, 
as  the  average  price  obtained  by  them  for  lands  sold  is  $4.25 
per  acre. 

The  River  Improvement  and  Canal  schemes  should  there- 
fore be  adopted,  as  they  can  not  be  a  monopoly.  The  Gov- 
ernment, the  States,  the  counties,  and  the  people  that  are  to 
locate  upon  the  donated  lauds,  can  afford  what  has  been 
asked  herein,  since  the  money  will  be  expended  along  the 
proposed  routes,  and  will  fully  compensate  the  givers.  The 
scheme  creates  the  wealth  with  which  to  complete  itself. 

The  reader  may  think  that  the  construction  of  the  pro- 
posed canals  will  involve  too  great  an  expense  upon  the  pres- 
ent population  of  the  United  States,  but  it  is  not  so  great  an 
undertaking,  in  proportion  to  the  present  population  of  the 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  49 

United  States,  as  it  was  for  the  people  of  the  Slates  of 
Indiana,  Ohio,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania,  to  build  about 
two  thousand  miles  of  the  De Witt-Clinton  canals  about 
forty  years  ago.  The  citizens  of  the  above  named  States  had 
to  stand  a  heavy  taxation  to  meet  the  expense  of  the  con- 
struction of  State  canals,  whereas  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  do  not  have  to  submit  to  an  increase  in  tax- 
ation to  meet  the  expense  of  constructing  the  proposed 
National  Bank  and  Land  Donation  Ship  Canals  ;  and  further, 
the  cost  per  capita  of  the  present  population  of  the  United 
States  would  not  be  so  great  for  the  construction  of  the 
proposed  canals,  as  the  cost  per  capita  was  for  the  people  of 
the  above  named  States  to  construct  their  two  thousand  miles 
of  De  Witt- Clinton  canals  forty  years  ago.  Therefore  the 
Government  should  at  once  survey,  locate,  and  begin  the 
proposed  ship  canals  and  stick  to  it  like  a  Jesuit  until  the 
object  had  in  view  is  accomplished,  and  thereby  improve 
nature's  natural  transportation  routes. 

DAKOTA  TERRITORY  DAMMING  SCHEME. 

The  people  of  Dakota  Territory  say  that  the  prairie  lands 
are  not  worth  a  d — n,  but  /say,  that  by  building  dams  they 
will  be  worth  a  d — n.  Any  one  familiar  with  Dakota,  is 
aware  that  during  the  summer  months,  there  is  but  a  slight 
rainfall  in  that  region.  This  may  be  attributed  to  many 
causes.  The  snow  falls  during  the  winter,  and  is  blown 
by  the  high  winds  into  the  valleys,  so  that  when  the  spring 
thaw  sets  in,  the  water  rans  off  at  once  from  these  snow  res- 
ervoirs, and  the  Missouri  River,  being  unequal  to  the  influx 
of  so  great  a  volume  of  water,  overflows  its  banks.  Now 
this  accumulation  in  the  valleys  of  the  snow  from  the  hills 
and  mountains,  necessarily  deprives  the  face  of  the  country 
of  one  great  source  from  which  to  derive  its  rainfall,  as  the 
distribution  of  these  snows  over  a  large  extent  of  country 
would  be  more  favorable  to  evaporation.  As  it  is,  the  rap- 
idly melting  snow  flows  out  before  there  is  time  for  evapora- 
tion. By  building  dams  across  the  lower  ends  of  many  of 


DO  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

the  valleys,  natural  basins  would  be  formed,  wherein  the 
drift  snow  would  be  retained,  so  that  when  the  spring  thaw 
sets  in,  large  bodies  of  water  would  remain  thus  imprisoned, 
from  which  a  continual  evaporation  woiild  necessarily  insure 
a  greater  rainfall,  and  the  hitherto  arid  plains  would  become 
valuable  and  fertile.  Still  another  great  advantage  to  be 
derived  from  such  a  system,  would  be  the  possibility  of  con- 
trolling the  Missouri  River,  and  preventing  those  disastrous 
inundations  for  which  it  is  noted.  There  are  many  streams 
iu  Dakota,  which,  being  dependent  upon  the  thaws  for  their 
supply  of  water,  are  dry  two  months  after  the  first  thaw. 
By  damming  these  streams  at  intervals,  from  their  mouths 
to  their  sources,  they  would  also  be  transformed  into  great 
natural  reservoirs.  Without  this  system,  Dakota  can  never 
become  a  farming  country,  for  at  present,  three  crops  out  of 
five  fail,  on  account  of  the  drouths,  but  in  some  portions  of 
the  Territory,  three  crops  out  of  two  fail;  that  is,  a  farmer 
and  his  family  will  strive  to  make  a  living  on  some  of  the 
land,  but  his  crop  fails  the  first  year ;  if  it  fails  the  second 
year,  he  and  his  children  most  likely  starve,  which  makes 
three  failures.  The  proposed  remedy  is  for  the  Government 
to  donate  lands  five  miles  wide  upon  each  side  of  all  the 
rivers  and  creeks  that  run  dry  and  such  valleys  as  may  be 
selected  for  reservoirs  or  water  basins.  The  money  received 
from  the  sale  of  lands  to  be  used  in  the  construction  of 
dams.  The  Government  should  also  plant  a  strip  with  tim- 
ber one-half  mile  wide  running  parallel  to  the  basins,  rivers, 
and  creeks.  The  Government  should  also  donate  one  sec- 
tion of  land  near  the  centre  of  each  township  in  Dakota  and 
all  other  Territories  and  States  where  the  Government  owns 
lands,  to  be  used  as  timber  lands  and  to  be  held  as  such  in 
common  by  the  townships  forever. 

THE  NON-FORFEITABLE  HOMESTEAD  BILL. 

The  States  to  enact  a  law,  whereby  any  person  desirous  of 
obtaining  a  lifetime  homestead,  may  procure  a  dwelling 
house  and  lot,  the  same  to  be  registered  in  a  book  kept  for 


PUBLIC  LANDS.  5] 

that  purpose  by  each  county  in  a  State.  The  book  to  be 
known  as  the  "  Homestead  Register."  The  lifetime  home- 
stead being  duly  recorded,  shall  be  exempt  from  all  legal 
execution.  Tax  shall  not  be  levied  except  upon  the  value 
of  the  ground.  The  buildings  to  be  declared  exempt  so  long 
as  they  are  used  as  dwelling  houses,  or  for  purposes  con- 
nected with  dwelling  houses,  but  if  any  building  or  buildings 
or  part  thereof  be  used  in  conducting  any  business  of  profit 
whatever,  then  the  tax  to  be  levied  as  the  law  directs  with 
respect  to  business  premises.  The  mere  keeping  of  an  office, 
however,  by  a  resident  family  not  to  be  considered  as  con- 
clusive that  the  same  is  being  used  for  other  purposes  than 
as  a  dwelling. 

Any  lifetime  homestead  having  been  duly  recorded  as 
such,  the  owner  to  be  prevented  by  law  from  selling  or  dis- 
posing of  the  same.  A  homestead  in  a  city  or  town  to  be 
limited  to  the  extent  of  one  block  or  less.  A  homestead  to 
be  devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  either  farming  or  grazing,  to  be 
limited  in  extent  to  one  hundred  acres  or  less.  A  homestead 
for  orchard  or  vineyard  to  consist  of  fifty  acres  or  less. 

Any  person  owning  a  homestead  who  may  wish  to  remove 
to  some  other  locality,  or  to  some  other  State,  can  do  so,  by 
applying  to  the  Judge  of  the  Probate  Court  of  his  county, 
and  if  it  can  be  shown  to  the  satisfaction  of  that  official,  that 
he  has  purchased  another  homestead,  that  it  is  clear  of  debt, 
and  worth  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  value  of  the  present 
homestead,  then  the  Judge  shall  issue  an  order  permitting 
the  sale  at  the  owner's  will.  But  if  the  new  homestead  that 
has  been  purchased  is  not  clear  of  debt,  then  the  Judge  shall 
appoint  the  Public  Administrator  as  trustee  for  the  sale  of 
the  present  homestead,  the  proceeds  thereof -to  be  applied 
to  liquidate  the  debt  on  the  new  homestead,  and  the  balance, 
if  any,  to  be  turned  over  to  the  owner,  less  the  trustee's  costa 
and  commission.  The  object  of  a  trustee  is  to  prevent  a 
man  from  depriving  his  family  of  the  benefit  of  his  home- 
stead. A  homestead  once  recorded,  can  never  be  lost,  which 
is  an  inducement  to  every  right  feeling  man,  and  as  thfr 


52  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

main  foundation  of  orderly  society  is  to  have  peace  at  home, 
therefore  one  must  first  obtain  a  home.  If  a  man  is  deprived 
of  or  loses  his  money,  he  becomes  a  coward,  for  he  will  then 
submit  to  insult  and  imposition,  that  he  would  not  submit  to 
if  he  had  money. 

If  every  newly  married  couple  would  procure  a  homestead, 
the  evils  resulting  from  loss  of  home  and  support  would  be 
lessened. 

In  the  majority  of  families,  when  the  necessary  money  is 
"  non  est,"  then  the  unnecessary  devil  is  to  pay.  Preachers 
may  preach,  preach  on  to  eternity,  but  they  can  not  restore 
peace  and  harmony  to  that  family.  Patience  will  cease  to 
be  a  virtue,  the  wife  will  become  soured  and  sullen  in  dis- 
position ;  the  children  neglected,  will  forget  obedience ;  the 
husband,  desponding,  will  lose  courage,  and  by  neglecting 
the  discipline  of  his  family,  fail  in  his  duty,  and  what  is  the 
result?  It  is  from  such  houses  as  I  have  just  painted,  that 
the  criminal  ranks  are  recruited.  This  homestead  law  would 
relieve  society  of  much  of  this  evil,  and  the  State  can  well 
afford  to  lose  the  homestead  tax,  as  it  will  be  more  than 
made  up  in  the  amount  saved  by  having  a  less  number  of 
criminals  in  her  penitentiaries  and  jails,  dependent  upon  her 
for  support.  As  a  man  is  under  no  obligation  to  get  a  fam- 
ily, having  once  gotten  one,  he  is  under  obligations  to 
provide  for  its  support ;  so  the  State,  while  it  has  no  right 
to  compel  a  man  to  get  a  family,  does  have  the  right  to 
compel  that  man  to  support  his  family,  when  tie  has  got  it, 
so  as  to  prevent  that  family  from  falling,  in  the  end,  upon 
the  State  for  support.  A  man  should  have  no  more  right  to 
dispose  of  his  homestead  than  he  has  to  dispose  of  his  family. 
A  creditor  should  have  no  more  right  to  take  a  man's  home- 
stead for  debt,  than  he  should  have  to  take  the  man's  family  ; 
and  the  State  should  say  to  the  man  :  "If  you  will  be  pru- 
dent enough  to  obtain  a  homestead  for  your  family,  I,  in 
turn,  will  be  prudent  enough  to  protect  you  in  its  posses- 
sion." It  shall  not  be  obligatory  upon  a  man  to  live  upon 
his  homestead,  because  some  men,  having  built  large  dwell- 


HARBORS.  53 

ings,  might  meet  reverses,  which  would  compel  them  to 
curtail  their  expenses,  in  which  case,  they  could  rent  a  less 
expensive  house  which  would  be  paid  by  the  lease  of  their 
homesteads.  Even  now,  many  men  would  build  large,  fine 
dwelling  houses,  but  the  high  tax  levied  deters  them  from 
so  doing. 

VOTERS. 

Congress  to  enact  a  law  to  the  effect,  that  all  men  con- 
nected with  the  civil  service  shall  not  be  entitled  to  vote  for 
either  President,  Vice-President,  or  Member  of  Congress. 
Such  a  law  would  only  place  them  in  the  same  political 
position  as  the  citizens  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  All  of 
those  Government  officials,  who  have,  directly  or  indirectly, 
the  power  of  either  employing  or  dismissing  men  who  are  in 
the  service  of  the  Government,  should,  before  being  per- 
mitted to  enter  upon  their  official  duties,  be  required  to 
make  oath  that  they  will  not,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
cause  assessments  to  be  levied  for  "  campaign  purposes" 
upon  those  who  are  under  their  official  control.  Such  a  pro- 
vision would  sensibly  curtail  the  strength  of  the  party  in 
power,  and  save  the  civil  service  man  his  earnings.  The 
same  law  should  apply  to  all  officers  of  chartered  or  licensed 
companies,  corporations,  or  institutions  that  employ  men ; 
it  should  also  require  those  officers  to  make  oath  that  no 
undue  influence  shall  be  exercised  to  control  the  votes  of 
their  employees. 

Such  laws  would  operate  as  a  protection  to  the  mechanic 
and  laborer,  and  as  a  check  upon  political  corruption ;  and 
those  parties  who,  by  the  aid  of  the  earnings  of  their  em- 
ployees, seek  to  advance  their  corrupt  political  designs. 


COAST  HARBOR  SCHEME. 

Should  it  be  deemed  wise  to  adopt  the  "  National  Bank 
Ship  Canal  Scheme."  the  "  River  Improvement,"  the 
"  $30.00  per  capita,"  or  the  "  $32.00  per  capita  Schemes," 


54  HARBORS. 

two  per  cent  per  capita  should  be  added  annually  in  order  to 
keep  pace  with  the  increase  of  population. 

The  population  of  1880  was  over  50,000,000,  therefore 
the  Government  should  issue  one  million  of  Legal  Tenders 
annually,  buying  up  therewith  four  per  cent  bonds.  The 
interest  saved  upon  those  bonds  would  be  $40,000.00  per 
annum,  and  since  one  million  in  bonds  would  be  retired 
annually,  the  interest  saved  would  amount  to  $2,120,000.00 
in  ten  years,  to  $8,120,000.00  in  twenty  years,  to  $18,060- 
000.00  in  thirty  years,  and  to  $31,860,000.00  in  forty  years. 

The  interest  so  saved  should  be  used  for  the  improvement 
of  coast  harbors.  If  this  scheme  is  adopted,  the  Govern- 
ment will,  in  forty  years,  have  reduced  the  national  debt 
$40,000,000.00,  whereas,  if  this  scheme  is  not  adopted,  the 
people  will  have  to  pay  the  forty  millions  of  bonds  and 
interest  to  private  parties. 

Galveston  harbor  to  be  improved  first.  If  the  circulation 
is  increased  to  a  basis  of  $32.00  per  capita,  that  amount, 
together  with  the  extra  million  issued  annually  to  keep  pace 
with  the  increase  of  population,  will  wipe  out  about  one-half 
of  the  present  national  debt,  or  $768,219,943.00,  and  the 
danger  of  inflation  would  not  be  nearly  so  great  as  appre- 
hended ;  from  the  fact,  that  the  increase  per  capita  would  be 
gradual,  it  would  take  several  years  to  wind  up  the  national 
banks,  and  for  Congress  to  shape  the  proposed  schemes. 
Furthermore,  the  one  million  to  be  issued  annually  to  keep 
pace  with  the  increase  in  population  is  not  quite  two  per 
cent.  The  loss  upon  paper  circulation,  resulting  from  vari- 
ous causes — fires,  etc. — is  about  one-sixth  of  one  per  cent ; 
so  from  such  causes  the  $32.00  per  capita  circulation  would 
suffer  a  shrinkage  of  over  one  and  one-half  million  dollars  per 
annum :  hence  there  can  be  no  inflation  so  long  as  the  Gov- 
ernment restricts  the  circulation  to  within  $32.00  per  capita. 
By  the  proposed  schemes  the  national  debt  would  be  reduced 
to  about  eight  hundred  million  dollars,  for  which  the  Gov- 
ernment would  have  to  provide  ;  arid  as  there  is  a  surplus  of 
nearly  $60,000,000.00  annually  over  and  above  ordinary 


COAST  DEFENCES.  56 

expenses  (see  Report  for  1880),  then  $50,000,000.00  can 
be  applied  annually  to  the  liquidation  of  the  national  debt, 
and  in  sixteen  years  the  Government  would  be  free  from  debt. 
The  $10,000,000.00  of  the  unapplied  annual  surplus  should 
be  used  to  purchase  coin,  with  which  again  to  retire  an  equiv- 
alent amount  of  Legal  Tenders,  and  in  forty  years  about 
one-half  of  the  total  amount  of  Legal  Tenders  will  have  been 
retired,  and  coin  will  gradually  become  the  money  of  tho 
Republic.  In  addition  to  the  $60,000,000.00  surplus  men- 
tioned heretofore,  another  surplus  will  accrue  from  the 
amount  of  interest  saved  every  year  upon  the  bonds  pur- 
chased as  proposed  with  the  $50,000,000.00 — two  millions  ad- 
ditional per  annum  would  be  saved  in  this  way,  and  one  million 
of  this  amount  should  be  expended  per  annum  in  constructing 
fortifications  for  coast  defence.  In  sixteen  years  $55,500,- 
000.00  will  have  been  expended,  and  such  disbursements  of 
money  in  various  parts  of  the  country  for  coast  defenses  and 
other  public  improvements  would  also  lessen  the  dangers  of 
inflation,  from  the  fact,  that  it  would  keep  a  large  number 
of  men  employed  annually,  and  thereby  keep  money  in 
motion.  The  Government  should  not  buy  up  bonds  exclu- 
sively in  New  York  City,  as  it  might  cause  inflation  in  that 
metropolis  ;  but  in  order  to  guard  against  such  dangers,  the 
Government  should  purchase  bonds  at  different  times,  and 
at  different  places.  The  other  half  of  the  interest  saved 
from  the  last  mentioned  surplus  should  be  set  aside,  each 
year,  by  the  Government,  as  a  war  fund,  which  should  be 
held  in  reserve  until  it  amounts  to  $100,000,000.00, 
so  that,  in  the  event  of  war,  the  Government  would  not  be 
at  the  mercy  of  money  lenders,  as  she  was  during  the  late 
civil  war.  The  best  fortification  that  a  Government  can 
build  against  an  enemy  is  a  money  fund;  then  the  army  can 
be  handled.  Without  money,  the  money  lenders  will  handle 
the  Government,  as  they  did  at  the  commencement  of  the 
last  war;  when  they  exacted  forty  per  cent  premium  for 
gold. 

In  order  to  keep  said  fund  from  remaining  idle,  it  would 
be  well  to  apply  three-fourths  to  the  purchase  of  the  bonds 


66  HOME  BOND  BILL. 

of  such  foreign  Governments  as  appear  most  likely  to  get 
into  trouble  with  this  country ;  then,  in  the  event  of  war, 
the  United  States  Government,  by  the  sale  of  all  of  the  for- 
eign bonds  on  hand  to  the  bankers  of  the  country  with  which 
war  seemed  imminent,  the  power  of  the  enemy  would  be  much 
weakened,  financially. 

When  the  war  fund  shall  have  reached  the  fixed  limit  of 
one  hundred  millions,  the  surplus  accruing  annually,  should 
be  devoted  by  the  Government  to  the  construction  of  new, 
and  the  improvement  of  old,  coast  defences. 


HOME  BOND  BILL  SCHEME. 


The  Government  to  guarantee  the  bonds  of  the  States, 
counties,  aud  cities,  upon  the  following  conditions ;  each 
State  to  enact  a  law,  accepting  these  conditions  : 

First. — That  the  President  of  the  United  States  appoint  a 
commissioner,  to  be  known  as  the  "Home  Bond  Commis- 
sioner " — he  to  hold  office  during  a  term  of  six  years,  and  to 
receive  a  salary  of  $8,000.00  per  annum,  with  additional 
allowance  for  clerk  hire.  The  duty  of  the  commissioner  and 
his  clerks  shall  be  to  keep  a  correct  account  of  the  total 
assessments  levied  in  each  State,  county,  and  city.  Con- 
gress to  prescribe  the  amount  of  indebtedness  which  a  State, 
county,  or  city  may  incur  ;  which  should  be  limited  to — say 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  total  assessed  valuation.  If  auy 
State,  county,  or  city  wishes  to  borrow  money  for  the  pur- 
pose of  refunding  their  bonded  or  other  debts,  then  a  certifi- 
cate shall  be  filed  with  the  Home  Bond  Commissioner  at 
Washington  City,  showiug  the  total  assessment  of  said  State, 
county,  or  city  ;  said  certificate  to  be  sworn  to  by  the  Audi- 
tor, Comptroller,  Assessor,  and  two  members  of  each  Central 
Committee  of  each  political  party.  Upon  presentation  of 
the  said  certificate  to  the  said  commissioner,  bonds  shall  be 
issued  to  said  State,  county,  or  city,  to  the  extent  of  the 
limit  fixed  by  act  of  Congress.  The  bonds  shall  be  signed 


HOME  BOND  BILL.  .         57 

by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  and 
by  the  commissioner,  who  shall  keep  a  record  of  all  bonds  so 
issued,  in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose,  which  shall  be  open 
to  public  inspection,  and  the  Treasurer  and  Comptroller  of 
State,  county,  or  city  shall  also  sign  the  bonds. 

In  case  a  State,  county,  or  city,  shall  default,  either  in 
interest  or  principal,  then  the  IT.  S.  Treasurer  shall  pay  the 
said  delinquent,  interest  or  principal  out  of  funds  not  other- 
wise appropriated,  the  President  to  appoint  a  collector 
for  the  said  delinquent  State,  county,  or  city,  the  collector's 
office  in  each  being  taken  possession  of  by  a  U.  S.  Marshal. 
The  taxes  collected  shall  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  the 
debt  assumed  by  the  Government,  as  well  as  all  expenses 
attending  the  collection.  All  bonds  so  issued,  shall  be  pay- 
able, both  principal  and  interest,  at  the  main  commercial  city 
of  the  State  for  which  the  said  bonds  were  issued.  All  ex- 
penses incurred  by  the  Home  Bond  Commissioner  at  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  such  as  salaries,  stationery,  printing  of  bonds, 
etc.,  shall  be  paid  by  the  States,  counties,  and  cities,  in 
proportion  to  the  bonds  issued  to  them. 

By  this  scheme  States,  counties,  and  cities  could  fund  all 
their  debts  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest  than  at  present,  because 
their  creditors  would  be  safe,  as  they  would  be  protected  by 
the  General  Government,  the  same  as  the  holder  of  a  national 
bank  bill.  The  holder  of  a  note  does  not  regard  the  State, 
county,  or  city  from  which  it  is  issued,  so  long  as  the  Gov- 
ernment is  held;  and  just  so  it  would  be  with  the  Govern- 
ment guaranteed  bonds.  The  bonds  should  be  of  uniform 
size  and  printed  upon  the  same  kind  of  paper.  As  these 
bonds  could  be  deposited  as  collateral  security  for  nearly  their 
face  value,  it  would  enable  persons  holding  them  to  transact 
business  to  a  better  advantage  than  with  the  present  State, 
county,  or  city  bonds,  as  they  bear  different  rates  of 
interest,  ranging  from  four  to  ten  per  cent,  and  their  value 
ranges  from  par  to  seventy-five  cents  discount.  The  Home 
Bond  Bill  bonds  to  draw  interest  at  the  rate  of  four  and  one- 
half  per  cent  per  annum,  payable  seini-annually,  one-half  in 


58  HOME  BOND  BILL. 

coin  and  one-half  in  Legal  Tenders.  The  principal  to  be 
payable  in  the  same  manner.  The  bonds  to  be  called  "  five- 
fifties" — the  maker  having  the  right,  after  the  expiration  of 
five  years,  to  call  them  at  option.  The  said  bonds  to  be 
exempt  from  all  taxes.  The  States  would  gain  by  the  low 
interest  and  no  tax ;  for  at  present  the  States,  counties,  and 
cities  loose  the  tax  on  bonds,  as  they  are  held  by  parties  who 
can  not  be  reached  by  the  assessor ;  and  the  proof  of  this 
fact  is,  that  the  assessor's  books  of  any  State,  county,  or 
city  will  show,  that  there  is  not  one-fifth  of  the  bonds  that 
are  outstanding  returned  for  taxation.  By  the  present  plan, 
the  States  pay  from  four  to  ten  per  cent  interest  on  their 
bonds,  and  count  on  getting  some  of  that  back  in  the  shape 
of  taxes.  So  the  State'does  not  get  the  tax,  but,  neverthe- 
less, she  pays  the  interest,  whereas,  by  this  scheme,  the 
tax  would  be  collected  in  advance,  by  reason  of  the  lower 
rate  of  interest. 

The  farmer  and  manufacturer  can  say  :  "I  can  now  invest 
my  money  with  safety,  since  I  have  no  fear  of  being  over- 
taxed on  account  of  the  increase  of  the  State  debt,  as  there 
is  a  limit  fixed  by  law."  A  sinking  fund  should  be  created 
in  each  State,  county,  or  city,  to  meet  the  bonds,  and  it 
should  be — say  five  per  cent  per  annum  of  the  gross  revenue. 

In  case  any  county,  having  a  less  amount  of  indebtedness 
than  the  limit,  wishes  to  issue  more  bonds,  it  can  be  put  to 
the  vote  of  the  people.  The  money  so  raised  to  be  used  for 
purchasing  timber  laud  in  each  township,  to  be  held  in  com- 
mon forever,  under  the  control  of  the  County  Court.  (See 
Appendix  "G.") 

A  county  cau  also  buy  ponds,  lakes,  and  creeks,  that  may 
be  suitable  for  reservoirs  or  fish  hatcheries  ;  the  same  to  be 
improved  and  stocked. 

A  State,  county,  or  city,  may  have  a  larger  debt  than  the 
fixed  limit,  in  which  case,  bonds  may  be  issued  to  fund  the 
over-debt ;  but  for  the  liquidation  of  that  over-debt,  a  sep- 
arate sinking  fund  should  be  created — such  bonds  to  run  10 
years,  and  to  be  known  as  "two-tens."  (See  Appendix 
"H.") 


COMMISSIONS.  59 

COMMISSIONS  CLAIMED. 


It  should  be  understood  and  agreed,  that  in  the  event  of 
the  United  States  Government  adopting  the  "  National  Bank 
Ship  Canal  Scheme,"  or  the  "  River  Improvement  Scheme," 
herein  proposed,  that  a  commission  of  5  cents  per  capita,  on 
the  basis  of  the  census  of  1880,  shall  be  paid  to  me,  as  the 
originator  of  said  schemes.  I  have  a  clearer  case  in  equity  to 
claim  a  commission  for  a  scheme  that  will  liquidate  nearly 
one-half  the  present  national  debt,  without  increasing  addi- 
tional taxation  or  debt,  than  the  syndicate  has  to  claim  a  com- 
mission for  negotiating  a  national  loan,  that  will  but  per- 
petuate a  debt  upon  the  people. 

It  is  shown  by  the  Secretary's  report  to  Congress,  January 
10th,  1880,  that  the  Government  has  paid  for  expense  of 
national  loans  and  currency,  from  1861  to  1879,  over  $51,- 
000,000.00,  and  therefore,  I  claim  the  said  commission. 
Notwithstanding  that  the  Government  may  make  amend- 
ments to  the  schemes  ;  that  is  to  say ,  if  the  main  feature  of 
the  "  National  Bank  Ship  Canal  Scheme,"  and  the  "  River 
Improvement  Scheme,"  as  herein  proposed,  are  the  bases  of 
any  plans  the  Government  may  adopt,  then  the  said  com- 
missions are  to  be  paid  to  me  ;  payable  in  annual  installments 
during  ten  years,  commencing  from  the  date  of  the  passage  of 
the  said  bill. 

It  should  also  be  agreed  and  understood,  that  in  the  event 
of  one  or  more  States  adopting  the  "  Home  Bond  Bill,"  as 
herein  proposed,  I  may  claim  from  said  State  or  States  two 
thousand  dollars  each,  as  a  commission  for  introducing  said 
bill,  the  said  two  thousand  dollars  to  be  paid  to  me,  within 
six  mouths  after  the  passage  of  said  "  Bond  Bill." 

Any  amendments  to  said  bill,  not  to  invalidate  my  claim 
to  the  commission  ;  that  is  to  say,  if  the  main  features  of  the 
scheme,  as  herein  proposed,  are  the  basis  of  any  bill  that  any 
State  may  adopt. 


RAILROADS. 


STATE   RAILROAD  REGU- 
LATIONS. 


Twelve  commissioners  to  serve  in  each  State,  two  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Governor ;  two  each  to  be  selected  by  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Kepresentatives,  and  six  to  be  elected 
by  the  popular  vote.  The  duty  of  the  commissioners  shall 
be  to  examine  books  and  all  other  evidences,  in  order  that 
the  actual  cost  of  all  railways,  to  their  present  owners,  may 
be  ascertained.  Said  commissioners  are  to  be  vested  with 
the  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  to  employ  expert 
accountants,  or  such  other  clerical  help  as  may  be  necessary. 
A  thorough  examination  to  be  made  into  the  expenses  and 
receipts,  and  the  amount  of  business  done  during  the  past 
three  years ;  the  average  result  of  one  year  will  thus  be 
ascertained,  and  from  that  average,  can  be  based  such  traffic 
and  passenger  rates  as  will  yield  a  net  surplus,  which  should 
be  a  fair  profit  upon  the  cost  of  the  roads  to  their  present 
owners.  The  rates  having  been  fixed,  they  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  legislature  for  approval. 

The  salary,  and  term  of  office  of  said  commissioners,  to 
be  fixed  by  the  State,  which  shall  pay  the  same  for  that 
period  consumed  in  ascertaining  the  present  status  of  the 
different  roads  ;  after  that,  to  be  paid  by  the  railroads,  and  to 
be  accounted  for  as  part  of  the  operating  expense  of  the 
road.  The  result  would  justify  the  means,  for  the  roads  and 
stock  would  be  kept  in  better  order,  the  officers  and  clerks 
would  be  better  paid,  and  the  trackmen  and  brakesmen,  who 
now  receive  but  forty  dollars  per  mouth,  would  most  likely  be 
advanced  to  fifty  or  sixty  dollars  per  month.  On  the 
Cleveland,  Columbus,  Cincinnati  and  Indianapolis,  and  on 
the  Indianapolis  and  St.  Louis  railroads,  these  forty  dollars 
per  month  trackmen  and  brakesmen,  who  are  in  constant 
danger,  are  compelled  to  sign  the  following  certificate,  which 


RAILROADS.  61 

is  known  and  called  by  the  signers  a  "  Death  Warrant;"  it 
will  be  found  on  page  11,  under  Rule  12,  of  a  publication 
issued  by  authority  of  the  roads,  and  reads  as  follows  :  "  The 
regular  compensation  to  employees,  covers  all  risks  or  liabili- 
ties to  accidents."  Men,  who  prefer  to  suffer  such  an  imposi- 
tion, rather  than  starve,  or  take  to  the  hi^hwavs  as  tramps, 
may  also  submit  to  being  told  by  the  managers,  as  to  whom 
they  shall  vote  for  President  of  the  United  States  ;  and  they 
may  also  submit  to  an  assessment  for  a  campaign  fund.  As  I 
have  shown  that  the  total  pooled  railroad  vote  was  over  one- 
ninth  of  the  popular  vote  in  1880,  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the 
employees,  to  favor  this  and  other  measures  herein  mentioned. 
If  the  managers  find  that  the  business  of  the  roads  increases, 
they  will,  most  likely,  say  to  themselves,  that  rather  than 
lower  the  rates  they  will  apply  the  surplus  earnings  to  the 
improvement  of  the  roads  and  their  equipment,  and  raising 
the  pay  of  all  hands  on  the  roads  and  thereby  the  community  at 
large  would  be  greatly  benefited,  as  the  roads  and  their  equip- 
ment would  be  kept  in  better  order  ;  and  hence,  danger  to  life 
and  property  materially  lessened.  The  commissioners  are  to 
meet  but  once  in  three  years,  and  the  rates,  then  established 
by  them,  shall  hold  for  three  years.  There  should"  be  at 
least  four  old  commissioners  upon  every  new  commission. 
The  object  in  having  twelve  commissioners  is,  that  being 
selected  in  four  different  ways,  it  is  a  guarantee  to  the  peo- 
ple that  there  will  be  a  correct  investigation  of  railroad  affairs, 
and  a  correct  report  to  the  Legislature.  Whereas,  as  the 
law  now  stands,  for  one  or  three  commissioners,  and  they 
appointed  by  one  man,  it  is  an  easy  thing  for  one  of  them,  if 
he  be  corrupt,  to  make  the  position  worth,  at  the  expense  of 
the  people,  about  double  that  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  If  any  railroad  manager  or  director  should  conspire 
to  defraud  the  stockholders,  or,  by  false  entries,  to  cause  an 
untrue  exhibit  of  gain,  and  it  can  be  proven  before  the 
proper  court,  he  should  be  prohibited  from  holding  any 
office  in  any  chartered  corporation. 


THE  CONTROVERSY. 


CONTROVERSY  IN  "UNCLE 
SAM'S'  FAMILY. 


I  propose,  in  what  follows,  to  represent  the  Government 
as  pater  familias,  the  States  as  sons,  cities  as  daughters, 
counties  as  grandsons,  and  the  territories  as  those  children 
who  have  not  yet  reached  their  majority.  When  the  father 
obtained  his  divorce  from  his  wife,  mother  England,  the 
children  followed  his  fortunes.  The  estate  was  divided  and 
the  thirteen  sons  received  each  a  portion.  In  consideration 
of  the  youth  of  the  minors,  the  father  acts  as  guardian  until 
they  become  of  age,  and  are  capable  of  assuming  control  of 
their  property  and  domestic  affairs. 

In  consideration  of  the  various  complications  likely  to 
arise,  concerning  the  postal  service,  money  matters,  com- 
merce, foreign  treaties,  army  and  navy,  tariffs,  inter-state 
commerce,  and  the  rights  of  citizenship,  the  thirteen  broth- 
ers agreed  that  it  was  to  their  mutual  advantage  to  employ 
the  "old  man"  as  their  attorney  in  fact,  for  the  perform- 
ance of  certain  things  duly  set  forth  in  a  written  instru- 
ment known  as  the  "  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ot 
America;"  he,  the  "old  man,"  to  make  solemn  oath,  that 
he  would  faithfully  abide  by  the  said  Constitution,  all  things 
not  embodied  therein  to  be  left  to  the  management  of  the 
brothers.  If,  in  the  course  of  time,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  increase  or  curtail  the  power  thus  conferred  upon  the 
"  old  man,"  the  brothers  to  exercise  that  prerogative,  pro- 
vided a  three  fourths'  vote  of  all  the  sons  that  were  of  age, 
was  taken  or  cast  in  its  favor. 

The  "  old  man,"  like  a  good  many  other  men,  who  have 
taken  advantage  of  the  law  of  divorce,  finally  became  very 
dissipated  and  reckless,  so  much  so,  that  the  boys  became 
jealous  of  each  other.  One  insisted  upon  it  that  "  Cotton 
was  King,"  another  conferred  upon  « 'Hay  "that  proud  distinc- 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  j3 

tion,  and  so  on.  The  "  old  man  "  strove  to  quiet  and  p;  jify 
them,  by  the  administration  of  soothing  syrups,  labeled 
"  the  Dred  Scott  decision,"  "  Mason  and  Dickson's  Line," 
"Squatter  Sovereignty  Bills,"  and  "Helpers'  Impending 
Crisis,"  but  without  effect,  other  than  to  inflame,  to  a  greater 
degree,  the  minds  of  the  unruly  bo}'s  who,  finally,  from 
words,  came  to  blows.  As  Napoleon  once  observed,  "  the 
Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest  artillery,"  it  is 
unnecessary  to  state  which  side  was  triumphant,  but  the 
triumphant  side  will  long  remember  what  a  fight  it  had. 
The  "king"  question  having  been  arbitrated  out  of  exist- 
ence by  the  sword,  the  boys  met  at  a  grand  centennial  cele- 
bration, holdcn  at  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  then  and  there 
agreed  to  make  friends  and  forget.  In  straightening  up 
affairs,  they  found  themselves  not  only  without  money  but 
heavily  in  debt ;  so  after  discussing  the  matter  they  con- 
cluded to  effect  some  arrangement  with  the  "  old  man." 
With  that  in  view,  the  grandsons  (counties),  the  daughters 
(cities),  with  the  old  boys  (States)  bringing  up  the  rear, 
wait  upon  the  "old  man."  Jackson  county  is  delegated 
to  begin  the  interview  That  county  arrives  in  due  lime  at 
the  White  House,  salutes  the  "  old  man,"  tells  him  of  his 
debts,  and  begs  that  he  guarantee  his  bonds.  The  "old 
man  "  says  :  "  Why  do  you  not  have  your  father,  Missouri, 
guarantee  your  bonds?"  Jackson:  "That  would  not 
appreciate  their  value.  I  ask  you  to  do  it,  as  it  would 
enable  me  to  fund  my  debt  at  a  much  less  rate  of  interest ; 
to  secure  you  in  the  transaction,  I  will  bind  myself  to  fix 
a  limit  beyond  which  I  can  not  increase  my  indebtedness,  say 
20  per  centum  of  the  total  assessed  valuation  of  all  my  prop- 
erty, so  that  you  will  have  no  trouble  caused  by  my  not 
being  able  to  meet  principal  and  interest."  "  Old  man"  : 
Well,  Jackson,  my  boy,  how  did  you  happen  to  become  so 
heavily  involved?"  Jackson:  "'Grandpa,  in  this  way:  I 
loaned  money  to  railroads  and  took  their  stock,  out  of  which 
they  swindled  me."  Old  man:  "  Jackson,  I  have  been 
watching  some  of  you  boys,  and  I  think  you  have  committed 


04  THE  CONTROVERSY. 

many  mistakes,  so  I  will  give  you  lecture  number  one.     I 
hope  that  you  will  profit  by  it  in  the  future." 

«<  First — You  should  learn  the  dodge  of  railroad  tricks,  and 
know  that  a  dozen  men  can  form  a  company,  with,  say  $100,- 
000,  get  a  charter  through  the  Legislature,  pay  your  county 
newspapers  to  advocate  the  road,  give  a  little  stock  to  the 
most  influential  persons  along  the  line  of  the  proposed  road 
in  order  to  induce  the  people  and  towns  to  grant  right  of 
way,  depot  grounds,  and  money  to  the  railroad.  Other- 
wise the  route  may  be  changed  in  order  to  pass  through 
a  town  favorably  and  liberally  disposed.  They  also  make 
it  to  the  interest  of  your  county  Judges  to  order  elec- 
tions, when  the  people  vote  to  make  the  donations  or  to 
subscribe  stock,  by  such  means  and  schemes,  and  with  their 
original  capital  of  $100,000.00  they  manage  to  grade  the 
road;  then,  to  complete  it,  money  is  borrowed  upon  first 
mortgage  bonds.  The  earnings  of  the  road  are  first  applied 
to  the  repayment  of  the  $100,000,  and  afterwards  to  the  pur- 
chase of  the  majority  of  the  first  mortgage  bonds.  That 
course  is  persisted  in  until  the  stockholders  begin  to  make 
trouble,  and  then  they  sell  the  road  under  the  first  mortgage 
lien,  by  which  plan,  they  wipe  out  all  the  first  stockholders. 
You  are  lucky  if  you  get  your  taxes,  and  although  the 
original  stockholders  may  not  be  as  rich  as  they  were,  still 
they  have  drunk  from  the  cup  of  experience.  My  second 
lecture  is  to  the  effect,  that  you  do  not  give  the  Judges  of 
either  the  county  or  criminal  courts  the  power  of  appointing 
Grand  Jurors  who  are  the  safeguards  of  the  people  against 
political  coiTuption.  .  Suppose  that  the  central  committee  of 
a  political  party  meet  in  caucus  and  select  one  of  their  friends 
as  a  candidate  for  Judge  of  either  the  county  or  the  criminal 
court,  that  by  fraud,  he  is  counted  in,  that  he  knows  it,  con- 
sents to  it,  and  takes  his  seat ;  then  suppose  that  some  one 
of  the  committee  commit  some  fraud,  either  in  connection 
with  the  county  treasury,  or  in  election  returns,  and  he  is 
brought  before  the  Judge,  what  kind  of  decision  might  be 
expected?  Why,  sir,  a  man  might  as  well  sue  the  devil  in  a 
court  holden  in  hell." 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  65 

These  corrupt  Judges,  who  have  the  power  of  appointing 
Grand  Jurors,  fear  but  two  things — the  small  pox  and  the 
U.  S.  Marshal ;  the  former,  because  it  is  impossible  to  have 
that  case  continued  indefinitely,  and  the  latter,  because  he  is 
apt  to  bring  them  before  some  Court,  wherein  neither  the 
Grand  nor -Petit  Jury  are  creatures  of  his  own,  to  explain 
why  the  county  has  so  large  a  debt ;  and  hence  he  fears  that 
Court. 

To  what  is  to  be  attributed  the  fact,  that  there  are  so  many 
criminals  at  large  ?  It  is  to  a  great  extent  the  fault  of  the 
Judges  and  the  Prosecuting  Attorneys,  who  are  altogether 
too  liberal  in  granting  continuances,  to  say  nothing  of  their 
occasionally  being  criminals  themselves.  You  have  neglected 
to  watch  the  Prosecuting  Attorney,  in  order  to  prevent  his 
making  a  charge  a  degree  higher  or  lower  than  the  evidence 
will  sustain,  so  that  the  cases  are  dismissed  on  account  of 
flaws  in  the  indictments.  You  have  neglected  to  look  after 
the  Judges,  in  order  to  prevent  their  making  illegal  rulings, 
in  order  that  their  friends  might  have  new  trials  upon  the 
ground  of  illegal  rulings  of  the  Courts,  and  thereby  wear 
out  the  prosecuting  witnesses.  You  have  neglected  to  scru- 
tinize your  jury  lists,  so  as  to  make  certain  all  men  are  legal 
jurors,  and  to  prevent  the  swearing  in  of  illegal  jurymen, 
for  the  purpose  of  hanging  the  jury  in  place  of  the  mur- 
derer. I  suggest  that  you  frame  a  law,  so  that  nine  jurymen 
be  sufficient  to  acquit  or  convict.  Christ,  in  selecting  his 
apostles,  got  one  Judas,  and  we,  who  are  not  nearly  so  good 
judges  of  men,  may  concede  three  out  of  every  twelve  men 
to  be  Iscariots.  Guard  against  these  possible  tricks  of  cor- 
rupt officials,  as  it  may  lessen  crime,  the  criminals  knowing 
that  they  can  not  trifle  with  the  Courts. 

As  to  your  public  schools,  take  warning  from  Washington's 
farewell  address.  Show  no  partiality  to  foreign  nations.  I 
say,  apply  the  same  to  your  public  schools.  Show  no  parti- 
ality for  foreign  languages  ;  do  away  with  the  dessert,  and 
introduce  substantial  food,  in  the  shape  of  the  gymnasium. 
Teach  the  boys  military  tactics,  and  encourage  them  to  turn 


66  THE  CONTEOVERSY. 

out  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  so  that  the  present  generation 
may  grow  up  imbued  with  the  same  patriotic  idea  as  animated 
the  souls  of  the  past,  and  then  in  case  of  war,  the  Govern- 
ment can  recruit  a  well  drilled  army  in  a  short  time. 
Make  it  as  a  qualification  for  holding  office,  that  a  man  shall 
have  attended  public  school  for  at  least  three  years,  and  a 
foreigner  who,  when  he  arrived  here,  was  under  seven  years 
of  age,  should  be  subjected  to  the  same  rule.  So  Jackson, 
my  boy,  adopt  these  suggestions  as  to  your  school  system, 
guard  your  school  expenditures,  or  the  growling  tax-payers 
and  the  intriguing  Jesuits  may  succeed  in  abolishing  the 
entire  system,  through  corrupt  legislation.  Adopt  and 
embody  these  principals  in  your  State  Constitution,  and  when 
you  shall  have  rectified  these  errors  which  I  have  pointed 
out,  then  I  will  guarantee  your  bonds." 

DAUGHTER  CINCINNATI'S  PETITION. 

Sisters  Cincinnati,  Orleans,  Memphis,  and  others  hold  a 
convention  for  the  purpose  of  devising  ways  and  means  to 
overcome  their  financial  embarrassments,  and  they  conclude 
to  send  Sister  Cincinnati  to  the  "old  man"  to  state  their 
grievances,  and  implore  assistance.  Cincinnati  arrives  at  the 
White  House,  and  is  welcomed  by  the  "old  man." 

Old  Man. — "  Why,  daughter,  you  appear  to  be  in  trouble  ; 
how  is  it  that  you  are  dressed  in  mourning  ?  Has  any  one  of 
the  family  died?" 

Cincinnati. — "Yes,  poor  Sister  Memphis  is  dead," 
O.  M.—"  Poor  Girl !   Of  what  did  she  die?  " 
C. — "  Of  a  most  disgraceful  and  contagious  disease,  one 
that  finds  many  victims  among  those  cities  who  are  hopelessly 
in  debt.      The  bondholders  call  it  the  « Receiver's  Plague,' 
and  some  of  my  sisters  already  complain  of  premonitory 
symptoms,  so  they  have  sent  me  to  you  for  a  remedy." 

O.  M. — "Memphis,  poor  girl,  has  been  sorely  afflicted; 
a  gunboat  fight  going  on  in  her  front,  Federals  and  Confed- 
erates fighting  to  the  north,  east,  and  south  of  her,  and  her- 
self a  victim  of  the  yellow  fever :  she  passed  through  all  to 
die  of  the  '  Receiver's  Plague  '." 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  67 

C. — "  Yes,  father,  and  I  am  sent  to  you,  to  beg  that  you 
will  endeavor  to  ward  off  that  plague." 

0.  M. — "  Surely,  I  am  ready  and  willing  to  do  all  that  is 
in  my  power,  to  avert  so  disastrous  a  visitation  as  this  dis- 
graceful plague,  which  is  worse  in  its  effects  than  the  black 
plague  ;  the  latter  kills  outright,  but  'the  former  subjects  its 
victims  to  a  lifelong  agony  of  disgrace  and  despair,  from 
contemplation  of  the  evil  results  of  folly ;  but  tell  me,  my 
daughter,  what  must  I  do,  in  order  to  shield  you  and  your 
sisters  from  the  <  Receiver's  Plague '  ?  " 

G. — "  Do  this,  my  father:  guarantee  our  bonds,  so  that 
we  can  fund  our  debts  at  a  lower  and  more  reasonable  rate  of 
interest ;  then  we  can  settle  with  our  creditors  at  from  fifty 
to  ninety  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  thereby  relieve  ourselves 
of  about  one-fourth  of  our  debts.  It  would  not  be  doing  an 
injustice  to  our  creditors,  since  those  parties  who  at  present 
hold  our  bonds,  purchased  them  at  from  twenty-five  to  ninety 
cents  on  the  dollar.  The  bondholders  urge  us  to  give  them 
solid  bonds,  and  offer,  in  case  we  agree,  to  compromise  upon 
liberal  terms.  Hence,  you  see,  that  if  you  will  guarantee 
our  bonds,  we  can  save  about  two  per  cent  interest  annually, 
and  at  the  same  time  reduce  our  debt  about  one-fifth.  To 
secure  you,  we  will  agree  to  limit  our  debts  to — say  about 
twenty  per  cent  of  our  total  assessed  valuation.  Such  a 
course  would  establish  business  upon  a  firmer  basis,  and  our 
increased  prosperity  would  be  to  your  advantage,  since,  as 
our  business  would  increase,  so  would  your  Internal  Revenue, 
which  would  enable  you  to  liquidate  your  own  indebtedness. 
The  bondholders  would  say  :  *  I  now  have  a  bond  that  will 
be  paid,  both  principal  and  interest,  without  its  being  neces- 
sary for  me  to  employ  an  attorney  to  go  into  Court  for  the 
purpose  of  enforcing  payment,  and  then  perhaps  fail.  I  now 
have  a  bond  that  I  can  use  in  bank  as  collateral  security  for 
about  its  face  value,  and  I  really  believe  that  I  could  use  it 
to  pay  hotel  bills,  even  in  Cairo,  Egypt.'  Now,  you  might 
say :  '  Look  here,  Miss  Delinquent,  if  you  don't  pay  the 
interest  and  principal  of  these  bonds,  I  will  send  my  Marshal 


68  THE  CONTROVERSY. 

to  oust  you  and  collect  the  taxes    until    they   are   paid.'  '' 

O.  M. — "Well,  Cincinnati,  I  am  favorably  impressed 
with  your  propositions,  and  I  will  present  them  to  the  next 
Congress  for  adoption ;  but  tell  me,  how  is  it  that  you  are 
so  far  behind  in  population,  and  yet  so  far  advanced  in  debt? 
At  one  time,  you  were  the  Queen  City  of  the  West, 
but  now  St.  Louis  and  Chicago  are  far  ahead  of  you?" 

(7. — «<  My  dear  father,  I  attribute  that  to  this  :  When  the 
Jewish  Hegira  began  from  my  Territory  to  Texas,  I  noticed 
a  marked  decline  in  the  volume  of  trade,  so,  in  order  to 
offset  that,  I  invested  heavily  in  railroads ;  but  when  I  had 
completed  the  system  to  the  north,  west,  and  southwest,  I 
found  it  absolutely  necessary  to  have  a  southern  outlet,  so  I 
invested  $18,000,000.00  in  that  road." 

O.  M. — "Oh!  now  I  see  where  the  trouble  lies,  you 
have  been  reading  some  work  on  railroads,  and  have  got 
railroads  on  the  brain." 

(7. — "  Yes,  I  have  been  reading  a  book  concerning  the 
products  of  the  country,  and  have  built  railroads  in  order  to 
handle  those  products.  Now,  the  book  upon  which  I  based 
all  of  my  calculations,  is  one  which  I  always  considered  to 
be  perfectly  reliable,  from  the  fact  that  you  appropriated 
money  for  its  publication,  and  its  title  is  "  Helpers'  Impend- 
ing Crisis." 

O.  M. — "  Oho  !  now  I  see  why  you  were  so  anxious  to 
have  a  southern  outlet,  it  was  to  convey  the  hay,  about 
which  Helper  wrote.  Poor  girl !  I  pity  you,  but  I  will  try 
and  help  you  out." 

THE  CONVENTION  OF  THE  THIRTY-EIGHT 
BROTHERS. 

The  Thirty-eight  Brothers,  having  arrived  at  man's  estate, 
being  of  sound  mind,  and  capable  of  managing  their  own 
affairs,  without  either  the  interference  of  each  other  or  the 
"old  man,"  met  at  Philadelphia  in  1876,  and  having  dis- 
cussed the  results  of  .the  late  war,  mutually  agreed  to  let  by- 
gones be  by-gones,  and  to  devote  themselves  to  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  confidence  among  the  business  community  of  the 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  69 

country.  It  was  considered  prudent  and  safe,  both  for  the 
debtor  and  creditor,  to  establish  one  head  bureau  at  Wash- 
ington ;  the  said  bureau  to  have  all  powers,  vested  by  act  of 
Congress,  in  the  Home  Bond  Bill. 

As  the  United  States  Government  was  found  to  be  in  debt, 
beyond  her  ability  to  pay,  without  the  assistance  of  the 
brothers,  which  comes  in  the  shape  of  Internal  Revenue, 
they  (the  brothers)  demanded  that  the  Government  guar- 
antee their  bonds,  and  act  as  the  head  of  the  Bureau.  Such 
being  the  sense  of  the  convention,  Maryland,  being  near- 
est to  the  seat  of  Government,  was  delegated  to  proceed 
to  the  White  House,  and  Dresent  the  petitions  to  the  "  old 
man." 

MARYLAND'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  «  OLD  MAN/ 

Maryland,  arriving  at  the  White  House,  enters  without 
any  ceremony,  and  says  :  "  Good  day,  Dad  !" 

Old  Man. — "  How  is  this,  Maryland,  that  you  rush  ia  as 
unceremoniously  as  if  you  had  an  important  message  from  a 
national  bank  committee.  But  I  know  your  failing,  and  I 
had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  you  during  the  late  war, 
keeping  you  down.  You  are  the  boy  who  urged  Virginia  to 
raise  the  Confederate  flag,  on  Arlington  Heights,  in  sight  of 
the  White  House.  I  have  made  a  soldiers'  cemetery  of  the 
Heights — " 

Maryland. — "  Yes,  and  over  the  gates  of  that  cemetery 
you  should  cause  to  be  written  :  <  Here  rest  the  remains  of 
Federal  soldiers,  who  sacrificed  their  lives  in  (battle  to 
sustain,  perpetuate,  and  give  power  to  the  Union ;  a  power 
that  is  now  being  used  to  oppress  her  children  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  heavy  taxes  for  the  benefit  of  the  national  banks  and 
other  chartered  right's  gentry,  who  never  shouldered  a 
musket  in  defense  of  that  Union.'  " 

0.  M. — "My  son,  do  not  forget  -yourself,  remember  to 
whom  you  are  talking,  if  you  have  any  business  to  transact 
with  me,  state  it  briefly,  for  I  am  in  no  very  good  humor  to- 
pay." 


70  THE  CONTROVERSY. 

M. — "  Well,  father,  I  am  sorry  to  find  you  in  a  bad 
humor,  for  the  business  I  have  to  transact  with  you  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  both  parties  should  be  in  good  humor. 
Nevertheless,  I  am  here  in  behalf  of  my  brothers,  who 
petition  you  to  guarantee  our  bonds.  They  are  similar  to 
those  mentioned  by  sister  Cincinnati  and  young  Jackson, 
with  this  exception,  that  some  of  our  bonds  are  to  be  of 
small  denomination,  say  twenty-fives  and  fifty  dollar  bonds, 
in  order  that  poor  people  can  invest  their  savings,  and  not 
suffer  loss,  as  has  been  the  case  heretofore,  through  the  so- 
called  savings  banks." 

O.  M. — "  If  you  boys  continue  to  conduct  your  State 
affairs  as  heretofore,  I  decline  to  guarantee  your  bonds.  I 
have  noticed  that  where  some  of  your  treasurers  defaulted, 
your  courts  failed  to  convict  them  ;  so  unless  you  show  some 
disposition  to  be  more  vigilant,  I  will  not  guarantee  the 
bonds.  You  boys  received  your  share  of  the  estate  in  1776, 
and  you  have  no  claims  upon  me,  so  good-bye,  Maryland." 

M. — O  no,  father,  not  good-bye  yet  I  I  must  defend  myself 
and  my  brothers,  against  your  accusations.  I  denounce 
your  usurpation  of  power  which  we  did  not  confer  upon  you, 
and  in  my  turn,  I  must  beg  that  you  will  not  forget  yourself, 
but  that  you  remember  to  whom  you  are  talking.  Who  are 
you,  I  say,  but  the  creature  of  our  creation.  We  thirteen 
brothers,  inherited  all  of  this  great  domain  from  our  mother's 
side,  and  you  have  nothing  except  that  which  we  gave  you,  and 
that  was  life,  name,  and  limited  power.  The  constitution 
sets  forth  your  duties,  but  of  late  years,  you  have  ignored 
that  instrument,  which  you  swore  to  obey  and  defend,  as 
though,  like  a  monarch,  you  were  not  amenable  to  criminal 
law.  You  are  drifting  along  the  channel  of  pride,  usurpa- 
tion, and  corruption,  and  if  you  do  not  look  back  and  remem- 
ber where  you  originated,  you  may  land  upon  a  tyranical 
foundation,  similar  to  that  occupied  to-day,  by  that  Grand 
Brute  William,  of  the  so-called  German  Empire.  He  claims 
to  rule  by  divine  right,  he  is  supported  by  Bismarck,  the 
Grand  Intriguer,  who  says  to  the  people,  away  with  religion, 


THE  CONTROVERSY-  71 

I  will  have  none  of  it ;  if  the  people  must  have  something  to 
worship,  let  them  worship  the  King.  So  do  not  forget 
yourself;  you  rule  by  the  will  of  thirty-eight  brothers.  We 
created  you  and  can  annihilate  you  ;  and  by  a  three-fourths 
vote,  we  can  either  add  to,  or  take  away  your  power.  Do 
not  take  offense  at  my  comparing  you  with  William  and 
Bismarck,  that  is  done  for  the  sake  of  illustration.  You  two 
are  the  only  governments  that,  for  the  past  twenty  years, 
have  been  infringing  upon  the  rights  of  the  people  ;  not  by 
delegated  right,  but  by  force  of  arms  and  usurpation.  You 
have  taken  from  us  things  that,  under  the  original  contract,  did 
not  belong  to  you.  .We  do  not  claim  the  right  of  secession, 
but  we  do  claim  the  right  of  protection ;  that  is,  if  any 
brother  should  violate  his  obligations  to  the  constitution,  to 
the  injury  of  the  other  brothers,  then  it  is  your  duty  to  com- 
pel him  to  live  up  to  -his  contract ;  so  if  you  overstep  your 
delegated  power,  we  brothers,  have  a  right  to  compel  you  to 
live  up  to  your  contract.  Do  not  deceive  yourself,  and 
imagine  that  the  people  owe  allegiance  to  you  individually  ; 
they  only  owe  allegiance  to  you  collectively.  This  Govern- 
ment is  a  sort  of  joint-stock  company,  and  every  citizen  is  a 
stockholder.  Do  not  deceive  yourself,  and  do  as  the  devil 
did  to  Christ,  and  say,  "  Profess  allegiance  to  me,  and  I  will 
give  you  all  -these  lands."  It  appears  that  you  have  been 
tempting  the  Pacific  railroads  by  giving  them  lands  which 
did  not  belong  to  you.  Those  lands  are  ours,  we  inherited 
them  from  our  mother,  and  merely  put  you  in  charge  of  them. 
You  should  dispose  of  these  lands  for  the  benefit  of  all,  and 
not  for  the  benefit  of  the  few.  Do  not  forget  that  God 
created  man  for  the  public  good,  and  the  Devil  being  of  an 
envious  disposition,  created  Judas,  Bismarck  &  Company 
for  public  bad ;  and  as  Judas,  Stanton,  Holt  &  Company 
ended,  so  may  you,  William,  Bismarck,  and  $he  others  end, 
who  have  no  regard  for  an  oath.  Profit  by  the  example  of 
others,  confine  yourself  to  your  prescribed  duties  only,  so 
that  when  you  go  out  of  office,  you  may  bear  with  you  the 
respect  of  all  people,  instead  of  doing  as  Buchanan  did, 


72  THE   CONTROVEESY. 

going  to  some  obscure  town,  there  to  pine  away,  from  the 
contemplation  of  the  evil  results  of  your  official  acts.  Who 
was  your  forefather  ?  You  had  none  !  We  thirteen  brothers 
created  you,  named  you  "Uncle  Sam,"  and  provided  you 
with  support  and  a  homestead.  As  we  were  scattered  all 
over  the  country,  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  have  some  one 
who  could  transact  business  for  us  collectively,  and  to  act  as 
guardian  for  the  minor  boys,  until  they  became  of  age. 
Individually,  how  have  you  discharged  the  duties  of  your 
office  ?  I  say,  badly ;  for,  by  your  extravagance,  you  have 
gone  into  debt,  beyond  your  ability  to  pay,  without  calling 
upon  us  through  a  scheme  called  the  Internal  Revenue.  You 
tell  us  that  we  have  managed  badly  ;  that  we  have  contracted 
enormous  debts  for  which  we  have  but  little  or  nothing  to 
show.  But  in  your  own  case,  take  the  cost  of  your  Navy 
from  1860  to  date,  and  what  have  you  to  show  for  that?  A 
third  rate  Navy,  not  sufficiently  strong  to  compel  a  third-rate 
power  like  Spain  to  make  redress  for  her  wholesale  massacre 
of  Americans,  an  outrage  for  which  there  was  no  manner  of 
excuse.  True  the  victims  of  the  "Virginius  massacre,"  may 
have  forfeited  their  rights  to  citizenship,  and  hence  to  pro- 
tection, by  their  joining  the  cruise,  but  there  were  many  of 
the  crew,  who  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the  true  character 
and  mission  of  the  vessel.  You  merely  demanded  the  trial 
of  Captain  Buriel ;  he  was  tried  and  dismissed,  and  you  were 
satisfied.  Six  months  afterward  he  was  promoted.  How 
did  you  act  in  regard  to  extending  protection  to  our  citizens 
in  Central  America?  When  Walker's  men  offered  to  sur- 
render, it  was  upon  condition  that  they  be  permitted  to 
return  home.  The  terms  were  accepted,  but  after  the  men 
had  lain  down  their  arms,  they  were  ordered  to  be  shot.  A 
petition  was  addressed  to  the  American  Consul  begging  him 
to  save  their  lives ;  but  he  either  would  not  or  could  not  do 
it.  They  then  invoked  the  aid  of  the  British  Consul,  and  he 
saved  their  lives.  The  men  returned  to  New  Orleans  in 
worse  trim  than  when  they  embarked,  but  with  their  stock  of 
knowledge  augmented  ;  they  had  learned  by  bitter  experience 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  73 

to  place  no  confidence  in  either  United  States  Consuls 
or  passports.  What  does  Bismarck  care  for  an  American 
passport?  When  he  needs  recruits  for  his  armies,  and 
catches  Germans  visiting  their  Fatherland,  he  makes  soldiers 
of  them.  They  apply  to  the  American  Minister  and  con- 
sulate for  protection,  and  an  investigation  is  had — with  what 
result?  Champagne  and  Bismarck  diplomacy  are  brought  to 
bear  and  the  matter  is  dropped,  but  the  visitors  serve  until 
the  war  is  over.  How  have  you  managed  your  Indian 
affairs  ?  You  have  been  chasing  the  Indians  over  the  plains 
of  Dakota  with  disastrous  results,  and  at  a  cost  of  millions 
of  dollars.  You  have  attempted  their  civilization,  i.  e.  their 
subjugation.  Finally  you  send  private  citizens,  DeSmet, 
Gilpin,  and  others,  to  try  and  persuade  the  Indians  to  come 
into  a  reservation,  and  the  Indian  says  to  himself,  "  As  we 
have  been  chased  all  summer,  and  had  no  time  to  lay  in  a 
stock  of  meat  for  the  winter,  we  will  go  in  and  fatten  up  for 
next  summer."  This  expensive  Indian  hunting  should  be  put 
a  stop  to,  and  the  money  hitherto  expended  in  that  amuse- 
ment, should  be  lent  to  private  parties  to  build  railroads 
through  the  Indian  country,  wherever  railroads  have 
appeared,  the  Indian  has  disappeared.  If  railroads  are 
built  through  those  sections  where  the  Indian  finds  his  winter 
quarters,  he  will  have  but  one,  of  two  alternatives,  to  leave, 
or  to  submit  to  government  terms  ;  but  do  not  lend  money 
on  second  mortgage,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Pacific  rail- 
roads, and  do  not  locate  the  Indians  on  the  sterile  wastes  of 
Dakota,  but  give  them  fertile  lands  two  hundred  acres  to  each 
member  of  a  family,  with  the  proviso  that  no  Indian  shall 
sell  his  land  until  he  shall  have  occupied  it  fifty  years.  An 
army  officer  and  a  sufficient  number  of  men  should  be  placed 
or  stationed  on  the  reservation  for  police  duty.  The  Govern- 
ment should  provide  the  Indians  with  necessary  farming  imple- 
ments, and  encourage  them  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 
And  in  order  to  facilitate  the  induction  of  the  Indian  to  the 
art  of  farming,  the  Government  should  donate  farms  of  two 
hundred  acres  to  those  white  or  colored  families  who  will 


74  THE  CONTROVERSY.  % 

settle  in  the  reservation  and  teach  the  Indiana  the  art  of 
agriculture.  The  proportion  of  white  or  colored  families  to 
Indian  families  should  be  as  one  is  to  ten.  The  Government  to 
supply  the  white,  colored,  and  Indian  families  with  provis- 
ions during  a  period  of  twenty  years,  commencing  with  a  full 
supply  the  first  year,  and  reducing  it  one-twentieth  each 
succeeding  year,  for  by  that  time  it  is  presumable  that  they 
will  have  learned  to  support  themselves.  At  the  expiration 
of  forty  years,  the  Indians  to  come  under  the  general  law,  to 
pay  taxes  as  do  other  people.  Those  who  are  able  to  read 
and  write  to  be  allowed  a  vote,  and  as  soon  as  the  Government 
deems  it  safe,  the.  troops  to  be  withdrawn.  The  Government  to 
erect  school  houses  upon  the  reservation  and  maintain  a  corps 
of  teachers  for  twenty  years  from  its  establishment.  The  Gov- 
ernment not  to  attempt  to  Christianize  the  Indian,  as  that 
is  no  part  of  its  duty.  Let  the  missionaries  of  the  various 
religious  denominations  settle  among  themselves  as  to  which 
shall  have  the  honor  of  converting  them  to  Christianity.  I 
will  illustrate  the  manner  in  which  the  Government  Christian- 
ized the  Indians  on  the  Missouri  River  agencies,  at  the  Grand 
River  agency  there  were  over  three  thousand  Indians  and 
the  first  lesson  in  Christianity  is  taught  by  the  officers,  who 
win  from  the  "  Bucks  "  their  best  looking  girls.  In  proof  of 
which  fact,  I  cite  the  number  of  half-breed  children  that  are 
running  about  the  reservation.  Such  acts  exasperate  the 
"Bucks, "and  they  swear  vengeance  against  the  "pale 
face."  The  next  lesson  is  received  from  the  sutler,  who 
teaches  them  the  Christian  art  of  cheating,  another  is 
received  from  the  soldiery,  who  introduce  syphilitic  diseases, 
so  that  in  the  end,  the  fate  of  the  Indian  is  worse  than  at  the 
beginning,  but  this  picture  is  true  of  Indians  on  frontier 
reservations.  I  advocate  locating  them  in  small  colonies, 
near  populous  districts,  where  they  can  be  subjected  to  the 
refining  influence  of  a  higher  civilization  and  Christianity. 
From  contact  with  such  people,  they  would  learn  of  the 
Three  Fundamental  Pillars  that  support  the  Nine  Fundamental 
Principles  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  the  Jew,  the 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  75 

Mason,  and  the  Catholic.  From  the  Jew  they  will  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  God's  Law,  and  commerce,  and  trade.  From 
the  Mason,  they  will  learn  that  from  the  white  light  of  knowl- 
edge springs  peace  and  good  will  towards  all  men ;  that  a 
man  is  a  man  and  only  a  man.  From  the  Catholic  they  will 
learn  industry,  obedience,  and  virtue.  As  the  three  Rulers 
in  Heaven  are  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  the  three 
rulers  upon  earth  are  Jew,  Mason,  and  Catholic,  and  the 
three  rulers  in  hell  are  the  Devil,  Pride,  and  Envy.  Go 
where  you  will,  there  will  you  find  the  Jew  among  the  spec- 
ulators, the  Mason  among  the  rulers,  and  the  Jesuit  among 
the  people,  the  latter  always  on  hand  when  wanted  and  often 
when  not  wanted,  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  Rome.  The 
Jew  has  a  hard  part  to  perform,  since  it  was  ordained  that 
he  shall  have  no  permanent  place  of  abode,  but  shall  be  a 
wanderer  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  He,  the  Jew,  is  one 
of  God's  miracles,  left  here  to  prove  the  truth  of  Holy 
Writ,  the  existence  of  God,  and  the  Crucifixion  of  Christ 
his  Son.  Without  the  Jew,  ministers  of  the  gospel  would 
have  no  visible  proof  of  Christ  ever  having  been  upon  earth. 
You  have  endeavored  to  establish,  by  legal  enactment, 
"  Social  Equality,"  when  you  know  there  can  be  no  such 
thing,  either  in  heaven,  the  earth,  hell,  or  the  penitentiary. 
Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  in  case  his  Satanic  Majesty  falls  heir 
to  such  giant  intellects  as  Beecher,  Bismarck,  Ingersoll,  and 
other  cattle  of  a  kindred  ilk,  that  he  will  make  of  them  com- 
mon stokers  ?  No,  sir ;  they  will  be  furnished  with  letters  of 
marque  and  reprisal,  and  sent  back  from  whence  they  came, 
to  continue  their  fallacious  reasoning,  to  divert  the  minds  of 
people  from  the  contemplation  of  the  one  true  God,  and  to 
swell  the  cohorts  of  hell — a  place  that  Beecher  says  does  not 
exist.  Of  late  years  you  have  been  interfering  in  our  elec- 
tions, for  which  course  you  have  no  right,  without  amending 
the  Constitution.  Read  over  that  solemn  writing,  which  at 
your  inaugural  you  swore  to  uphold  and  protect;  and  if 
therein  you  can  find  any  authority  for  appointing  supervisors 
of  elections,  then  it  is  a  new  construction  of  the  real  meaning 


76  THE  CONTROVEE8Y. 

,ing  of  the  Constitution,  and  different  from  that  taught  us  by 
our  forefathers.  We  object  to  your  supervisors,  as  it  is 
possible  for  them  to  be  even  more  corrupt  than  the  super- 
vised ;  in  proof  of  which  fact  I  refer  you  to  your  supervisors 
under  the  ambitious  regime  of  the  Third  Termers ;  they 
compelled  the  distillers  to  be  corrupt,  or  close  their  distill- 
eries, therefore  we  want  none  of  your  supervisors.  If  we 
should  acknowledge  your  right  to  appoint  supervisors,  then, 
by  precedent,  you  might  assume  the  right  to  appoint  judges 
and  clerks  of  elections,  and  finally,  returning  boards ,  and 
if  that  came  to  pass,  what  guarantee  would  the  people  have 
against  corrupt  or  ambitious  men,  who  might  enter  into 
league  with  the  railroad  power.  Having  previously  appointed 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  with  that  purpose  in  view,  and 
with  the  army  sworn  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  President, 
and  to  support  the  decisions  of  the  Courts,  a  corrupt  and 
ambitions  man  might  cause  himself  to  be  counted  in  against 
the  will  of  the  people.  Hence,  I  claim,  that  by  a  central- 
ization of  the  powers  of  the  Government,  the  liberty  of  the 
Republic  is  endangered  ;  but,  by  a  division  of  those  powers 
among  the  States,  we  will  hare  some  guarantee  for  the  per- 
petuation of  the  Republic.  I  admit  that  there  are  some 
laws,  at  present  in  the  codes  of  the  States,  that  should  be 
vested  in  the  general  government ;  but  it  should  be  done  in 
a  legal  manner,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution,  and  not 
by  usurpation,  as  heretofore.  You  may  think  to  enjoy  the 
pride  of  office,  obtained  through  fraud,  but  remorse  of  con- 
science will  more  than  balance  that  enjoyment.  You  may 
labor  under  the  impression  that  there  is  no  hereafter,  if  so,  I 
will  recall  to  your  mind  some  of  the  phantoms  that  have  dis- 
turbed your  uneasy  slumbers  in  the  White  House.  Your 
mind  may  have  been  wandering,  thousands  of  miles  away,  in 
fancied  intrigue  with  Queen  Vic.  the  miserly  Popess  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  and,  with  Bismarck,  to  the  end  that  they 
recognize  you  as  Emperor  of  North  America ;  but  awake  to  the 
truth,  for  it  was  given  to  man  by  the  Great  Father  to  dream. 
While  we  brothers  were  fighting  you  took  advantage  of  us  and 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  77 

took  in  Brother  Nevada,  before  he  was  of  age,  in  order  to  carry 
out  your  ill-advised  schemes.  You  also  adopted  and  took 
into  the  family  of  State,  that  illegitimate  child,  West  Vir- 
ginia, who,  we  refuse  to  acknowledge  as  a  legitimate  brother. 
You  have  neglected  your  duty  in  matters  concerning  home 
products,  for  Brother  Louisiana  tells  me  that  you  bought  last 
year  from  foreign  governments  over  $74,000,000  worth  of 
sugar,  while  those  same  governments  bought  of  us  less 
than  $7,000,000  of  our  products.  Spain,  who  takes  the 
largest  amount  of  the  said  $74,000,000,  places  a  prohibitory 
tariff  of  over  $4.00  per  barrel  on  our  flour  and  other  pro- 
ducts in  proportion.  Louisiana  tells  me  that  he  has  swamp 
lands — enough,  if  they  were  drained,  to  raise  sugar  enough 
for  the  whole  country,  and  thereby  keep  the  $74,000,000 
at  home,  and  give  employment  to  thousands,  of  families. 
Louisiana  is  not  able  to  drain  those  swamps,  but  you  might 
buy  and  reclaim  them.  They  could  then  be  sold  to  settlers 
for  more  than  enough  to  cover  the  expense  of  draining,  to 
say  nothing  of  improving  the  health  of  the  people. 

We  propose  to  change  the  mode  of  electing  you,  for  past 
experience  has  proven  that  the  Electoral  College  system 
has  been  productive  of  trouble,  controversy,  and  needless 
expense.  It  has  been  found  wanting  for  the  object  had  in 
view  by  our  forefathers,  and  it  has  been  the  means  of  seat- 
ing in  the  Presidential  chair,  seven  minority  Presidents. 
First — John  Q.  Adams,  in  1824.  Second— Jas.  K.  Polk, 
in  1844.  Third— Z.  Taylor,  in  1848.  Fourth— James 
Buchanan,  in  1856.  Fifth— A.  Lincoln,  in  1860.  Sixth— 
R.  B.  Hayes,  in  1876,  and  Seventh — James  A.  Garfield,  in 
1880,  and  it  is  but  fair  to  presume  that  had  not  the  troops 
interfered  in  the  Southern  States,  during  Grant's  Presiden- 
tial campaign,  he  would  have  been  in  the  minority.  When 
military  officers  can  be  used  as  they  were  used  in  South 
Carolina,  in  the  interest  of  one  party,  against  another,  then 
the  will  of  the  people  is  easily  defeated.  When  an  officer 
of  the  U.  S.  Army  will  interest  himself  to  such  an  extent, 
as  not  to  ask  for  orders  from  his  superior  officer,  but  go 


78  THE  CONTROVERSY. 

himself  to  Washington  City  for  orders  from  a  partisan  leader, 
and  then  place  a  sergeant  at  the  door  of  a  State  capital  with 
orders  to  admit  no  member  unless  he  have  a  certificate  from 
a  partisan  judge  appointed  for  that  very  purpose,  then  the 
augur  in  question  is  not  a  carpenter's  tool,  but  a  partisan 
tool.  So  from  your  past  acts,  and  the  possibility  of  usurpa- 
tion and  corruption  in  the  future,  we  have  decided  to  change 
your  term  of  office  to  six  years — limited  to  one  term.  We 
will  grant  you  a  pension  of  $10,000.00  per  annum,  to  con- 
tinue during  the  natural  life  of  yourself  and  wife."  You  are 
not  to  appoint  to  office  any  blood  relation  of  either  yourself 
or  your  wife,  which  will  put  a  stop  to  such  cases  as  Fred 
Grant's.  You  are  to  be  elected  by  the  popular  vote,  each 
political  party  to  have  an  equal  number  of  representatives  at 
all  places  of  registration,  if  any,  at  all  polling  places,  and 
upon  all  returning  boards.  One  bad  precedent  can  do  more 
harm  than  four  good  ones  can  amend.  An  evil-disposed 
President  will  conduct  himself  well  during  his  first  term  in 
order  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  people,  so  that  he  can 
perfect  his  corrupt  schemes  during  his  second  term.  Take 
Napoleon,  the  Csesars,  Grant,  and  others,  it  was  the  people 
to  begin  with,  but  the  great  1  am  to  end  with." 


I  now  close,  and  submit  my  schemes,  my  propositions,  and 
my  bills  to  my  reader.  Whether  they  are  worthy  of 
approval  must  be  left  to  his  judgment.  I  feel  that  I  have 
performed  my  duty  in  endeavoring  to  prove  that  in  the 
administration  of  public  affairs,  every  American  citizen  is 
entitled  to  a  vote,  and  an  opinion.  I  am  aware  that  my  ideas 
are  crude  and  are  presented  in  an  unfinished  manner,  but  I 
trust  that  men  of  greater  knowledge  and  literary  attainments 
than  myself,  will  find  enough  herein  to  warrant  them  in  tak- 
ing up  the  matter,  and  presenting  it  in  the  shape  that  I  feel 
it  deserves. 


THE  CONTROVERSY.  79 

I  do  not  claim  perfection  for  my  work,  but  I  consider  it 
to  be  the  foundation  and  basis  of  measures,  which,  when 
reduced  to  practical  working,  will  redound  to  the  benefit  of 
the  people  of  this  great  Republic. 

Very  Respectfully, 

MAT.   KONCEN. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  April  10,  1881. 


ANNEX. 


ANNEX. 


As  has  been  shown  by  the  adoption  of  the  $30  and  $32 
per  capita  schemes,  $285,000,000  legal  tenders  will  have  to 
be  issued,  all  of  which  will  have  been  redeemed  in  coin  within 
twenty  years,  by  means  of  the  other  schemes,  and  there  will 
yet  remain  an  annual  surplus  of  over  one  million  dollars 
from  the  appropriated  revenue.  A  further  annual  surplus 
will  result  from  the  $300,000,000  at  present  allowed  as  the 
annual  expense  of  the  Government,  from  the  fact  that  the 
river  improvement  scheme,  as  herein  proposed,  will  do  away 
with  the  necessity  of  an  appropriation  on  that  account ;  so 
that  altogether  an  unappropriated  surplus  of  about  five  mil- 
lion dollars  may  be  estimated.  That  sum  should  be  applied 
as  follows:  First  in  the  construction  of  five  or  more  steam- 
ships specially  designed  for  privateering,  and  combining 
speed  and  strength,  capable  of  being  quickly  handled  in 
close  quarters.  These  vessels  should  be  supplied  with  such 
armaments  as  the  Navy  Department  may  deem  proper.  Two 
of  the  vessels  should  be  stationed  on  the  Pacific  and  three 
on  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  United  States  Government 
should  never  relinquish  her  right  of  privateering  since  it  is 
her  best  safeguard  in  the  event  of  European  wars.  Five 
good  privateers  can  do  more  to  avert,  or  bring  to  a  close,  a 
war  with  a  government  like  England,  than  half  a  million 
soldiers,  or  the  English  Channel  full  of  unwieldy  gun-boats. 

In  times  of  peace  the  said  vessels  could  be  placed  in  com- 
mission as  United  States  mail  and  passenger  packets  to  run 
between  our  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ports,  and  South  American, 
Indian,  or  other  commercial  ports,  which  at  present  need  a 
greater  tonnage  to  accommodate  the  demands  of  commerce. 
The  placing  of  these  vessels  as  mail  and  passenger  packets 


ANNEX.  81 

between  those  ports  would,  in  a  few  years,  result  in  more  inti- 
mate commercial  relationship,  and  would  induce  private 
parties  to  establish  lines  of  steamers ;  it  would  ultimately 
result  in  a  revival  of  American  commerce  at  a  much  less 
expense  than  that  attending  the  granting  of  subsidies  to 
private  monopolies.  Again,  by  placing  these  vessels  in  com- 
mission as  mail  and  passenger  packets,  we  can  build  up  the 
American  marine,  since  the  youth  would  prefer  enlisting  upon 
such  a  class  of  vessels  to  enrolling  themselves  in  such  train- 
ing ships  as  the  Wachussets,  where  the  boys  never  knew 
whether  the  vessel  would  ever  leave  port  or  not,  or  in  case  she 
did  leave,  never  knew  her  destination  or  how  long  she  would 
be  out.  But  if  my  plan  is  adopted,  the  boys  will  say  to 
each  other,  "  let's  go,  for  we  will  see  the  whole  world  in  a 
short  time,  and  if  we  don't  like  the  ship,  we  can  soon  leave 
as  she  often  comes  into  port."  After  building  the  said  priva- 
teers*  and  paying  for  them,  the  said  surplus  of  five  million  to 
be  used  in  the  redemption  of  legal  tenders. 

REDUCTION  OF  TAXES. 

Taking  the  year  1830  as  a  basis,  the  receipts  from  all 
sources  amounted  to  $361,000,000,  which  amount,  according 
to  the  hereinbefore  mentioned  schemes,  is  all  assigned  to  par- 
ticular purposes.  If  the  Government  suffers  no  reverses  it  is 
fair  to  anticipate  an  annual  increase  in  revenue  on  account  of 
the  annual  increase  in  population  and  business.  Such  being 
the  case,  the  revenue  resulting  from  "  internal  revenue,"  or 
imports  should  not  be  permitted  to  exceed  $361,000,000,  at 
which  amount  the  receipts  should  be  held.  An  annual  sur- 
plus will  remain  from  the  receipts  as  there  will  be  an  annual 
reduction  in  disbursements.  In  1880  $73,652,000  was  paid 
on  account  of  the  public  debt,  $95,757,000  on  interest, 
$56,700,000  on  pensions,  and  $2,795,000  on  premium  on 
bonds.  Two  of  said  items,  viz  :  The  interest  on  the  public 
debt  and  pensions  will  show  an  annual  reduction,  and  thus 
would  result  an  annual  surplus  for  Congressmen  to  skirmish 


82  ANNEX. 

with,  to  further  reduce  taxes,  or  to   redeem   legal   tenders 
with  coin  as  might  be  deemed  best. 

THE  AMERICAN  CANCER. 

There  is  a  silent  and  constant  drain  upon  the  resources  of 
the  American  people,  with  which  to  meet  the  interest  upon 
our  securities  held  abroad,  such  as  United  States  bonds, 
State  and  city  bonds,  railroad  bonds,  mining  stocks,  lands, 
etc.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  foreigners  hold  the  first 
mortgage  bonds  of  the  railways,  which,  on  account  of  rascally 
management  upon  the  part  of  some  railroad  presidents,  in 
that  they  have  borrowed  money  upon  the  bonds  to  pay  divi- 
dends, must  come  to  an  end,  the  railways  must  be  sold  under 
those  mortgages,  so  that  the  foreigner  will  receive  just  double 
the  amount  of  what  he  now  holds,  and  the  stockholder  will 
lose  everything.  The  London  Economist,  of  1878,  says  that 
American  securities  held  abroad  amount  to  over  $3,500,- 
000,000,  which  at  6  per  cent  would  yield  $210,000,000.  So 
according  to  that  journal  the  people  of  the  United  States 
pay  annually  to  foreigners  interest  on  various  securities 
amounting  to  $210,000,000.  The  duties  on  imports  show 
the  balance  of  trade  to  be  in  our  favor,  but  it  has  to  show 
$210, 000, 000  annually  before  the  interest  on  those  securities 
is  balanced,  and  hence  I  am  justified  in  alluding  to  that  drain 
as  the  American  cancer. 


I  APPENDIX, 

i 


Financial  condition  of   the  United   States  Government,  January  1, 
1881,  as  per  Secretary  Sherman's  Public  Debt  Statement,  January  3, 

1881: 

Total  coin  bonds $1,672,665,400  00 

Non-interest  bearing  debt,  viz : 

Legal  tenders,  fractional  currency,  certificates  of 

deposit,  and  coin  certificates 427,619,696  00 


Total  debt , $2,100,285,096  00 

Cash  in  Treasury $222,299,739 

Amount  due  by  Pacific  Kailroads,  princi- 
pal and  interest 79,994,592 


Total  deduction 302,294,331  00 


Balance,  net  debt $1,797,990,765  00 

Debt  per  capita,  based  upon  population  of  1880 35  83 

Receipts  from  Internal  Revenue,  Customs,  and  other 

sources,  1880 .' .       359,496,739  00 

Appropriation  for  1881 .' 298,055,097  00 


Surplus $61,441,642  00 


Comptroller's  currency  report,  January  1, 1881 : 

Legal  Tenders $346«,681,016  00 

National  Bank  Notes 343,219,943  Oft 

Demand  notes,  compound  interest  notes,  and  fractional 

currency 19,368,481  00 

Com  in  circulation 612,283,357  00 


Total  circulation $1,321,552,797  00 

Per  capita  circulation  January  1, 1881 26  S5 


ir  APPENDIX. 

(St.  Louis  Financial  Chronicle,  January  10, 1881.) 

Money  in  the  hands  of  the  people 8843,107,462  00 

Per  capita  in  the  hands  of  the  people 16  81 


NOTE— Sherman,  in  his  report,  says  that  there  may  be  deducted  from 
the  total  debt,  $12,000,000,  fractional  currency  lost,  and  $1,000,000 
paper  money  destroyed  in  the  Chicago  fire. 


APPENDIX 


Secretary's  report  to  Congress,  under  date  of  January  10th,   1880 
showing  expenses  from  1861  to  1879,  including  the  expenses  of  the  war: 

Interest  on  the  public  debt $1,764,256,198  00 

Pay  of  two  and  three  year  volunteers .  •. 1,040,102,702  00 

Subsistence  of  the  army 381,417,548  00 

Clothing  of  the  army 345,543,880  00 

Transportation 336,793,885  00 

Horses , 126,672,423  00 

Other  Quartermaster  supplies ' 320,000,000  00 

Pensions 407,429,193  00 

Bounties 140,281,178  00 

Eeimbursing  the  State  for  war  expenses 41,000,000  00 

Arms 76,000,000  00 

Supplies 56,000,000  00 

Assessing  and  collecting  revenue 113,000,000  00 

Expenses  for  National  loan  and  currency 51,523,000  00 

Premium  on  gold 59,738,000  00 

Expensesof  the  Navy 412,000,000  00 

National  cemeteries 5,243,000  00 

Support  oJE  "  National  Home  "  for  disabled  volunteers.  8,546,000  00 


Total  war  expenses $5,685,547,007  00 

Ordinary  expenses  of  Government  during  the  nineteen 

years , '. 609,549,143  00 


Grand  total  for  the  nineteen  years $6,295,096,150  00 


NOTE — Cost  of  the  war  per  capita  based  on  the   census  of   1880, 
$113  36-100.  '•£,•• 


APPENDIX. 


AJPPENDIX 


Oakland  and  Barges— Crying  Evil. 


WASHINGTON,  June  10. — When  the  river  and  harbor  bill  was  consid.. 
eyed  in  the  Senate  an  amendment  was  adopted  directing  that  a  survey  be 
made  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  the  practicability  and  cost  of  construc- 
tion of  a  ship  canal  from  Lake  Erie,  by  the  Maumee  and  Wabash  valleys, 
in  the  bed  of  the  old  Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  to  the  navigable  waters  of 
the  Wabash  river;  also  fora  survey  and  estimate  of  cost  of  a  similar 
canal  from  Junction  City,  on  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal,  to  the  Ohio 
river,  by  way  of  the  Miami  and  Erie  canal,  to  produce  the  most  practical 
and  least  expensive  ship  canal  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  navigable  waters  of 
the  Ohio  river,  the  estimates  to  be  for  a*water  channel  and  locks  of  the 
same  size  and  capacity  as  those  of  the  enlarged  Erie  canal  in  New  York. 

While  the  Senate  was  doing  this  the  House  Committee  on  Railways  and 
Canals  had  adopted  a  bill  covering  the  same  ground  and  appropriating 
$15,000  for  expenses.  A  very  interesting  report  has  been  prepared  by 
Mr.  Wise,  and  as  it  treats  of  a  matter  in  which  the  West  is  materially 
interested,  I  give  the  essential  features.  It  is  well  known  that  the  rapid 
progress  of  improvements  at  the  Welland  canal  makes  it  an  important 
matter  to  secure  water-communication  between  the  western  rivers  and 
the  lakes. 

"It  will  be  observed,"  says  the  committee,  "that  our  internal  water- 
routes  by  nature  are  divided  up  into  subdivisions  or  systems,  of  which 
the  great  Mississippi  River  system,  including  all  its  branches,  is  the 
greatest  in  extent  and  importance.  Secondly,  the  great  lake  system  is 
next  in  extent  and  importance.  Then  we  have  the  Hudson  River,  the 
Connecticut  River,  the  James  River,  and  many  others. 

"Now,  if  we  connect  any  two  of  these  rivers  by  an  artificial  channel, 
so  as  practically  to  convert  the  two  into  one,  we  not  only  make  the  one 
combination  of  more  than  double  the  extent,  but  of  vastly  more  than  • 
double  in  amount  of  traffic  and  commercial  importance. 

'  If,  now,  we  put  in  another  link  in  the  form  of  a  large  canal,  first-class 
in  all  its  appointments,  connecting  the  Mississippi  system  with  the  lakes, 
can  any  one  doubt  that  the  Upper  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  will 
pour  a  vast  commerce  into  the  lakes,  and  thence  into  the  Hudson,  and 
that  these  latter  will  in  turn  abundantly  contribute  of  their  greatly  in- 
creased accumulations  to  the  Mississippi  ?  The  importance,  the  necessity 
of  a  water  connection  between  our  lake  ports  and  our  interior  and  marine 


vi  APPENDIX. 

ports  for  the  use  and  sustenance  of  the  navy  in  unforeseen  events  that 
are  liable  to  arise  at  any  unexpected  time  must  be  so  evident  to  all  that 
we  deem  it  unnecessary  to  more  than  call  attention  to  this  subject,  and 
to  the  further  fact  that  should  such  events  arise  it  will  then  be  too  late  to 
commence  a  work  that  requires  years  for  its  execution. 

"Your  committee  further  desires  to  call  attention  to  the  important  fact 
that  while  we  as  a  nation  have  continually  neglected  (except  the  limited 
aid  contributed  to  the  Erie  canal  alone)  to  furnish  any  aid  or  means  to 
cheapen  transportation  and  enlarge  the  outlets  from  the  great  lakes  east 
through  our  own  domain  and  through  our  own  cities  and  ports,  our 
British  cousins  have  been  constantly  and  wisely  enlarging  and  vastly 
improving  their  outlet  from  the  upper  lakes  through  the  Welland  canal 
and  the  St.  Lawrence.  They  are  successfully  competing  with  us  in  car- 
rying our  own  grain  and  other  produce  from  our  own  lake  cities  to 
Europe,  and  shortly  they  will  have  their  water  routes  PO  enlarged  and 
improved  that  foreign  vessels  of  two  thousand  tons  capacity,  coming  by 
a  route  owned  and  controlled  by  a  foreign  power,  can  enter  all  our  upper 
lake  cities,  while  the  limit  of  capacity  of  boats  passing  by  our  Erie  canal 
is  but  six  hundred  and  ninety  tons  each. 

"Further,  as  to  the  practicability  of  either  of  these  routes,  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  as  canals  have  long  since  been  constructed,  and  are  still  in 
practical  use  upon  them,  and  are  peculiarly  favored  with  abundant  water 
supplies  upon  their  summit  levels,  one  of  which — the  Miami  and  Erie — 
has  the  largest  artificial  lake  or  reservoir  in  the  world,  and  which,  with 
but  little  additional  expense,  can  be  made  to  feed  abundantly  the  enlarged 
ship  canal  proposed. 

"It  is  evident  that  the  low  freights  on  water  routes,  and  their  controll- 
ing effect  in  keeping  down  railroad  freights  nearly  as  low  as  their  own, 
alone  enables  Western  farmers  and  dealers  to  ship  corn,  oats,  and  other 
cheap  grains  to  Europe,  which  they  only  can  do  profitably  during  the 
season  of  water -route  competition. 

"We  report  in  favor  of  t,  complete  examination  of  the  two  routes 
which  converge  into  one  at  Junction  City,  Ohio,  and  form  one  route 
from  that  place  to  Toledo,  with  no  natural  opposition  of  any  consequence 
to  overcome,  but  at  every  point  favorable  and  inviting."— Correspondence 
of  the  Republican. 


.  ST.  PAUL,  December  20.— The  St.  Paul  Board  of  Trade  to-day  adopted 
the  following : 

Resolved,  That  the  people  of  Minnesota  are  losing  millions  of  dollars 
every  year  in  the  extra  freight  they  are  compelled  to  pay  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  their  products  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  upon  all  articles 
of  necessity  imported  to  the  State,  and  since  the  only  hope  of  relief 
from  these  evils  is  in  the  opening  up  of  competing  water  lines  of  trans- 
portation, we  call  upon  our  Representatives  in  Congress  to  insist  upon 


APPENDIX.  vii 

the  improvement  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  lakes,  and  to  stand  to- 
gether as  one  man,  with  all  Representatives  of  the  Northwest,  in  oppo- 
sition to  all  sections  and  all  interests  which  oppose  these  improvements. 
Resolved  further,  That  a  copy  of  this  resolution  be  forwarded  to  each 
of  our  Representatives  in  Congress  with  the  request  that  they  confer 
with  Representatives  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  other  sections  interested 
in  these  improvements,  with  a  view  to  unity  of  action  and  the  formation 
of  a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  for  the  success  of  these  measures. 


THIS  was  sought  to  be  shown  in  Friday's  issue  of  the  Republican,  and 
the  statement  was  reliable  as  based  on  the  statistics  supplied  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Merchants'  Exchange  in  his  report  of  the  trade  and  com- 
merce of  the  city  for  1880.  The  object  of  the  summary  given  in  the 
Republican  was  to  show  what  had  been  done  and  was  doing  for  our  grain 
business  in  the  facilities,  extent,  and  prospects  of  movement  by  the 
river  to  foreign  countries,  and  in  it  were  contained  all  the  data  to  the 
present,  so  far  as  practical  capacity  was  concerned.  As  further  evidence 
of  what  can  be  done  here  in  immense  movement  of  grain  by  river  south- 
ward for  export— and  all  in  bulk  that  goes  by  that  route  is  for  export— is 
given  the  cargo  of  wheat  and  corn  by  a  single  fleet  which  left  this  port 
yesterday,  that  of  the  steamer  Oakland,  of  the  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans 
Transportation  line,  which  will  take  into  New  Orleans  (dangers  of  navi- 
gation excepted)  the  largest  tow  of  grain  that  ever  descended  the  Mis- 
sissippi, including  263,465  bushels  of  corn,  and  90,000  bushels  wheat,  or 
a  total  of  10,465  tons,  or  20.847.900  pounds.  This  great  quantity  has 
been  received  by  eight  barges,  six  of  which  left  yesterday  morning,  the 
remaining  two  to  be  added  at  Belmont,  to  which  point  a  portion  of  the 
grain  had  been  transported  from  here  by  the  St.  Louis,  Iron  Mountain 
and  Southern  Railroad.  In  addition  to  this  immense  towage  by  the  Oak- 
land will  be  taken  a  capacious  fuel  barge,  and  the  whole,  it  is  known, 
she  can  handle  with  ease.  The  largest  previous  tows  in  1880  were  as 
follows  in  the  order  of  proportions  of  bushels  and  pounds :  The  Iron 
Mountain  and  barges  left  the  levee  April  10,  with  300,000  bushels  of  corn, 
or  16,800,000  pounds  cargo.  The  same  boat  and  barges,  February  29. 
with  47,000  bushels  wheat,  and  21 0,228  bushels  corn,  or  14,392,768  pounds. 
The  D.  Gilmore,  July  17,  with  178.000  bushels  wheat,  and  30,000  bushels 
corn,  or  13,860,000  pounds;  and  the  Oakland,  August  10,  with  230,158 
bushels  wheat.  And  these  figures  comprise  mainly  wheat  and  corn,  rye 
playing  a  comparatively  small  part,  yet  promising  well  as  a  factor  in  the 
interest  of  grain  export  from  here.  There  were  other  large  movements 
of  grain  by  the  barge  lines  last  year,  but  they  need  not  now  be  men- 
tioned. It  is  worthy  of  note  in»  connection  with  the  above,  that  this 
single  cargo  of  the  Oakland  would  have  required  700  freight  cars  to  have 
carried  the  same  amount  on  thirty-five  separate  freight  trains  and 
engines. 


Till  APPENDIX. 


Conkling  and  Railroads  vs.  United  States  Courts— Railroad 
Influence  in  United  States  Courts. 


Restrained  Prom  Paying  Taxes. 

SAN  FKANCISCO,  Feb.  21.— A  bill  in  equity  was  filed  to-day  in  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  by  C.  P.  Huntington  to  restrain  the  Central 
and  Southern  Pacific  Railroads  and  their  branches  from  paying,  and  the 
tax  collectors  of  the  different  counties  through  which  they  pass  from 
collecting,  the  taxes  levied  on  the  basis  of  the  assessment  fixed  by  the 
State  Board  of  Equalization.  Fifty  suite  have  been  drawn  covering  every 
mile  of  railroad  owned  by  the  two  companies  in  this  State.  Complaint 
alleges  that  the  tax  and  assessment  are  void  on  constitutional  grounds. 
First,  because  the  bill  under  which  the  assessment  was  made  embraced 
more  than  one  subject ;  second,  because  the  clause  of  the  constitution 
dividing  the  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  powers  of  the  govern- 
ment is  infringed  by  the  act  of  the  board  of  equalization ;  third,  because 
the  board  did  not  assess  the  property  at  its  actual  value ;  fourth,  th'. 
board  did  not  assess  the  improvements  separately  as  the  law  provides. 
Judge  Sawyer  granted  a  restraining  order  summoning  the  defendants  to 
show  cause  why  an  injunction  should  not  be  granted  returnable  next 
Monday.— Missouri  Republican  Feb.  22, 1881. 


A  Question  of  "Water. 


The  application  of  the  elevated  railroads  of  New  York  for  relief  from 
the  $750,000  taxes  assessed  against  them  for  the  last  two  years  has  been 
refused,  and  if  the  statements  of  the  officers  made  in  the  presentation  of 
their  case  be  true,  the  companies  must  go  into  bankruptcy.  But  the 
New  York  public  do  not  believe  these  statements.  It  may  be  true  that 
the  roads  can  not,  after  paying  their  operating  expenses,  taxes  and  inter- 
est, pay  also  a  dividend  on  their  $43.000,000  stock;  but  it  is  asserted 
that  this  stock  consists  of  a  large  amount  of  water— some  estimates  make 
it  seven-eighths  and  others  four  to  one.  Two  of  the  roads  show  an 
aggregate  of  stock,  bonds  and  other  securities  issued  of  §24,641,000;  but 


APPENDIX.  ix 

a  legislative  commission  estimated  that  their  to  actual  cost  ha?  been 
only  $18,358,000.  For  the  first  two  years  after  the  roads  went  into  ope- 
ration reports  were  circulated  of  their  large  business  and  large  profits, 
under  which  the  stock  advanced  strongly  in  price.  After  this  came 
stories  of  suits,  extraordinary  legal  proceedings  and  insecurity  of  struc- 
tures, which  caused  a  fall  in  prices.  The  fluctuations  were  from  20  to  50 
per  cent  and  it  is  asserted  that  the  managers  of  the  roads  profited  largely 
by  availing  themselves  of  these  reports  started  by  themselves;  and 
the  suspicion  is  expressed  that  the  present  complaint  ;about  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  earnings  to  pay  the  demands  upon  them  are  part  of  a  new 
game  of  stock- jobbing.  The  admitted  gross  earnings  of  the  roads  last 
year  were  $5,200.000,  and  these  are  steadily  increasing ;  and  the  public 
take  the  view  that  the  net  earnings  are  sufficient  to  pay  a  dividend  on 
the  actual  cost  of  the  roads,  if  the  owners  would  only  be  content  •with 
that. — Missouri  Republican. 


Railroad  Influence  in  Court. 


A  telegram  was  yesterday  sent  to  Senator  Thurman,  as  Chairman  oJ 
the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate,  signed  by  the  President  and 
Secretary  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and  Transportation,  "in 
behalf  of  800  business  firms,"  members  of  that  organization,  protesting 
against  the  confirmation  of  Stanley  Matthews  as  Associate  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  on  these  grounds : 

1.  That  the  railroad  corporations  are  endeavoring  to  obtain  control  of 
that  Court,  which  has  heretofore  been  the  most  important  bulwark  in 
defending  the  public  interests  against  the  encroachments  of  corpora- 
tions. 

2.  That  Mr.  Matthews  has  been  educated  as  a  railroad  lawyer  and 
naturally  regards  railroad  questions  from  that  point  now. 

3.  That  Mr.  Matthews'  action  in  the  Senate  proves  this  and  shows 
that  in  this  important  respect  he  is  unfit  for  the  position  for  which  he 
has  been  nominated  by  the  President. 

This  telegram  is  deserving  of  and  will  receive  careful  consideration 
from  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate,  whose  able  Chairman  is 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  matters  mentioned  therein.  The  telegram 
shows  clearly  that  the  merchants  are  keeping  their  eyes  wide  open  for 
the  movements  of  the  railroad  monopolists  and  will  not  be  slow  in  using 
means  to  thwart  their  machinations  against  the  interests  of  the  people.— 
New  York  Graphic. 


Exempt  from  Taxation. 


WHEELING,  W.  Va.,  May  2.— In  the  case  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Railway  Co.  against  J.  S.  Miller,  auditor  of  West  Virginia,  Judge  Mel- 


I  APPENDIX. 

vin  to-tlay  delivered  an  opinion  refusing  to  dissolve  the  injunction  here- 
tofore granted  restraining  the  assessment  and  collection  of  taxes  on  the 
property  of  the  road.  The  effect  of  this  decision  is  to  sustain  the  posi- 
tion of  the  company  that  its  property  is  exempt  from  taxation  under  the 
original  act  of  incorporation. 


The  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press  says : 

THE  most  eloquent  and,  at  the  same  time,  most  authoritative  tribute  to 
the  power  of  money,  in  its  organized  and  working  shape,  may  be  found 
in  the  following  extract  from  the  report  of  the  United  States  Senate 
Committee  on  Transportation  Routes : 

"  In  the  matter  of  taxation,  there  are  to-day  four  men  representing 
the  four  great  trunk  lines  between  Chicago  and  New  York,  who  possess, 
and  who  not  infrequently  exercise,  powers  which  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  would  not  venture  to  exert.  They  may  at  any  time,  and 
for  any  reason  satisfactory  to  themselves,  by  a  single  stroke  of  the  pen, 
reduce  the  value  of  property  in  this  country  by  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars.  An  additional  charge  of  five  cents  per  bushel  on  the  transpor- 
tation of  cereals  would  have  been  equivalent  to  a  tax  of  forty-five  mil- 
lions of  dollars  on  the  crop  of  1873.  No  Congress  would  dare  to  exer- 
cise so  vast  a  power  except  upon  a  necessity  of  the  most  imperative 
nature;  and  yet  these  gentlemen  exercise  it  whenever  it  suits  their 
supreme  will  and  pleasure,  without  explanation  or  apology." 

Occasionally  it  assumes  to  dictate  in  quarters  where  dictation  has 
hitherto  been  considered  impossible.  For  instance,  last  January,  in  an 
argument  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Franklin 
B.  Growen  said : 

*'  I  have  heard  the  counsel  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railway  Company, 
standing  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  threaten  that  court  with 
the  displeasure  of  its  clients  if  it  decided  against  them,  and  all  the  blood 
in  my  body  tingled  with  shame  at  the  humiliating  spectacle." 

Mr.  Gowen's  rather  significant  statement  has  never  been  contradicted. 

Of  course  the  money  power  buys  fine  tools  when  it  needs  them.  For 
instance,  during  the  war  the  federal  government,  under  the  then  exist- 
ing tax  laws,  collected  $500,000  from  the  New  York  Central  Railway 
Company.  Sometime  afterward^the  company — which  had  always  dis- 
puted the  legality  of  the  tax— brought  suit  against  the  government  for 
the  amount,  and  hired  Senator  Conkling  as  its  attorney.  He  gained  his 
case ;  by  what  arguments  the  Utica  Observer  gently  indicates : 

"Now,  when  Mr.  Conkling  went  down  to  Canandaigua  to  try -this 
railroad  case,  he  carried  with  him  a  greater  political  influence  than  any 
other  man  in  our  State  wields.  He  appeared  before  a  judge  whom  he 
had  elevated  to  the  bench  only  a  few  months  before.  He  confronted  a 
district  attorney  who  could  not  hold  his  office  for  a  day  if  Mr.  Conkling 
should  demand  his  removal.  He  secured  a  verdict  which  the  jury  was 


APPENDIX.  xi 

forced  to  render  by  the  rulings  of  the  judge.  Under  that  verdict  the 
railroad  recovers  a  round  half  million,  which  it  might  have  lost  but  for 
its  shrewdness  in  employing  the  right  man  to  prosecute  its  claim." 

And  the  New  York  Tribune  said : 

"• The  appearance  of  Senator  Conkling  as  attorney  in  a  recent  railroad 
case,  in  behalf  of  a  railroad  corporation  and  against  the  government  of 
which  he  is  a  sworn  official,  suggests  a  question  of  political  expediency, 
and  incidentally  of  morals,  which  must  sooner  or  later  be  very  fully  and 
freely  discussed  before  the  people.  *  *  *  Somewhere  there  must  be 
a  line  which  separates  the  profession  of  an  advocate  from  the  func- 
tions of  a  legislator.  Would  it  not  be  well  to  have  that  line  author- 
itatively denned?" 

To  all  of  which  Senator'  Conkling  and  his  employers  may  reply, 
"  Well,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" — and  nobody  can  answer 
the  interesting  question. 

Evidently  we  have  in  our  midst  a  moneyed  aristocracy  more  influen- 
tial for  good  or  evil  than  all  the  blue-blooded  nobility  of  the  Old  World; 
more  powerful  even  than  the  agents  of  the  people  in  Congress  assembled. 
And  again  the  interesting  question  arises,  "  What  are  we  going  to  do 
about  it?"—  Clipped  from  the  Missouri  Republican,  Dec,  12, 1880. 


Pacific  R.  R.  Government— R.  R.  Candidates— Rivers 
and  Railroads. 


A  Railroad  Candidate. 

It  would  be  very  interesting  to  have  the  full  strength  of  the  railroads 
put  forward  in  such  a  struggle,  because  then  we  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  learning,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  what  the 
railroad  strength  amounts  to.  Heretofore,  in  the  contests  between  the 
railroad  corporations  and  the  popular  governing  bodies,  we  have  seen 
only  isolated  and  individual  exertions  of,  strength,  although  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  in  every  case  the  railroads  have  come  out  ahead.  Thirteen 
years  ago  the  Missouri  Kailroads  tackled  the  Missouri  Legisla- 
ture, and  whe"n  the  conflict  was  over,  the  railroad  people  had  all  the 
property  and  the  people  of  the  State  had  all  the  load  to  carry.  Three 
years  ago  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joe  Railroad,  single-handed  and 
unaided,  bucked  against  the  State,  and  the  State  fared  no  better  than  a 
country  bumpkin  in  a  bunko  den.  We  do  not  need  to  recall  the  success 
with  which  the  Pacific  Railroad  corporations  first  extracted  from  the 


xii  APPENDIX. 

Treasury  enough  money  to  build  the  roads  and  then  beat  the  National 
Government  on-  a  plain  question  of  paying  interest  on  the  debt  which 
created  the  railroads.  There  has  never  been  a  conflict  between  a  rail- 
road corporation  and  a  department  of  government,  State,  National  or 
municipal,  in  which  the  railroad  did  not  come  out  ahead,  and  this  even 
in  cases  where  the  railroads  were  comparatively  weak  and  wholly 
unaided. — St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat. 


Pacific  Railroads. 

SINKING    FUNDS. 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  15. — The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  transmitted  to 
the  House  to-day  an  important  communication  from  the  Auditor  of 
Bailroad  Accounts. 

The  condition  of  the  debt  of  these  companies  to  the  United  States 
may  be  stated  as  follows :  Union  Pacific,  principal,  $27,236,512 ;  inter- 
est to  December  31,  1879,  $19,238,182;  total,  $46,474,694;  repaid  by 
transportation  and  cash,  $9,826,638;  balance  December  31, 1879,  $36,- 
648,056;  add  two  years'  interest,  1880  and  1881,  $3,268,381;  total,  $39,- 
916,437;  less  payments  under  the  Thurman  law  of  1880-81,  $3,750,000; 
balance  Dec.  31, 1881,  $36,166,437. 

Central  Pacific— Principal  $27,855,680;  interest  to  Dec.  31, 1879,  $19,- 
271,111;  total,  $47,126,791;  repaid  by  transportation  or  cash,  $4,541,318; 
balance  Dec.  31,  1879,  $42,585,437;  add  two  years' interest— 1880  and 
1881— $3,342,682;  total,  $46,928,155;  less  payments  under  the  Thurman 
law— 1880  and  1881— $2,100,000;  balance  Dec.  31, 1881,  $43,828,155. 


THE  New  York  Central  Railroad  represents  $130,000,000  of  invest- 
ment, and  $30,000,000  of  annual  business.  The  Pennsylvania  Road  rep- 
resents $150,000,000,  and  $40,000,000 of  business;  the  Union  and  Central 
Pacific  represent  between  them  nearly  $300,000,000.  A  mortgage  was 
filed  last  week  in  St.  Louis,  on  a  single  railroad,  for  $50,000.000.  Enor- 
mous as  are  these  figures,  they  are  but  the  beginning,  or  rather  the  first 
landing-place,  in  a  course  of  consolidation  which  is  part  of  the  destiny 
of  railroads.  Our  country  is  very  large,  and  the  necessities  of  competi- 
tion compel  the  owners  of  railroad  property  to  unite  vast  systems  under 
one  management.  The  greater  the  mileage  of  our  railroads,  the  greater 
the  investment,  the  business  and  the  influence,  the  smaller  the  number 
of  corporations,  and  in  a  very  few  years  we  will  find  the  whole  railroad 
property  of  this  country  under  the  management  and  control  of  a  dozen 
or  so  of  magnates,  united  in  purpose,  inexhaustible  in  resourses  and  not 
over-scrupulous  in  j;he  use  of  them.  Any  one  who  stops  to  think  of  it, 
can  not  help  thinking  that  the  country  is  in  less  danger  from  any  third- 
term  movement  than  it  is  from  the  influence  of  railroad  corporations. 
As  the  test  has  got  to  come,  and  as  the  sooner  it  comes  the  better. 


APPENDIX.  xiii 


APPENDIX  " 


Decrease  of  Timber. 


THE  Vice-President  of  the  Western  Lumbermen's  Exchange  estimates 
that,  if  the  demand  for  lumber  increases  proportionately,  the  forests  of 
the  United  States  will  be  annihilated  in  twenty  years.  The  same  view 
is  taken  by  the  Northwestern  Lumberman,  which  says  that  "the  timber 
supply  of  the  Northwest  is  becoming  so  rapidly  exhausted  that  within 
the  next  ten  years  something  like  a  timber  famine  may  be  looked  for." 


Local  Departments. 


Rivers  and  Railroads- 
Eastern  members  of  Congress  object  to  the  appropriation  of  $1,000,000 
for  the  improvement  of  the  Mississippi  river  below  Cairo  because  they 
fear  that  it  would  commit  the  Government  to  an  approval  of  the  Missis- 
sippi River  Commissioners'  plan  for  the  general  improvement  of  that 
stream,  and  cost  a  great  deal  of  money  in  the  end.  It  is  curious  that 
these  gentlemen  should  be  so  shocked  at  every  imagined  extravagance 
involved  in  appropriations  to  the  great  rivers  of  the  West  when  we 
remember  the  readiness  with  which  they  voted  for  the  enormous  grants 
of  lands  to  railroads  owned  by  Eastern  companies.  A  recent  official 
statement  gives  some  surprising  facts  about  these  land  grants.  The 
amount  of  public  lands  given  to  the  Pacific  railroads  alone  is  181,000,000 
acres;  of  this  the  roads  have  sold  $36,000,000  worth,  at  an  average 
price  of  $4.25  per  acre,  and  own  43,000,000  acres,  valued  at  $78,889.000; 
and  they  have  a  claim  on  61,907,000  acres  more,  valued  at  $134,000,000— 
the  value  of  the  whole  grant  being  $248,000,000— and  this  exclusive  of 
the  $64,000,000  in  bonds  granted  them  in  addition.  It  may  be  said  that 
these  roads  are  in  the  West.  This  is  true,  but  they  are  owned  by  East, 
eru  men,  and  in  that  fact  we  have  the  explanation  of  the  lavish  liberal- 
ity of  Eastern  members  of  Congress.  These  members  were,  many  of 


*lv  APPENDIX. 

them,  stockholders  in  the  companies,  and,  in  voting  for  the  land  grants^ 
they  were  simply  voting  large  areas  of  the  public  domain  to  themselves. 
It  may  be  a  geographical  misfortune  that  the  Mississippi  river  does 
not  flow  from  west  to  east  and  empty  into  Long  Island  Sound  or  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  instead  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Were  this  the  case,  East- 
ern Representatives  would  find  reasons  for  appropriating  money  for 
its  improvement  which  they  do  not  discern  now.  Still,  the  great  river 
runs  in  its  entire  course  through  American  territory,  and  as  it  washes 
ten  States,  one  would  think  it  as  clearly  entitled  to  a  few  millions  of 
public  money  as  are  the  railroads  which  have  been  voted  land  grants 
worth  $248,000,000.— Missouri  Republican  Feb.  12,1881 . 


Municipal  Debts. 

Gov.  McClellan  calls  the  attention  of  the  Xew  Jersey  Legislature  to 
the  enormous  load  of  indebtedness  which  some  of  the  cities  in  that  State 
are  carrying.  Nine  of  them  have  debts  aggregating  S36.500.000,  or  one- 
sixth  of  their  total  valuation  of  taxable  property.  Rahway  owes  at  the 
rate  of  $243  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  within  its  limits.  Gov. 
Hartranft  also  takes  a  gloomy  view  of  the  ability  of  Pennsylvania  cities 
to  meet  their  financial  obligations,  and  many  other  States  are  not  much 
better  off  in  this  respect  than  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania. 

Local 
States.  Indebtedness. 

New  York  (census  of  1875) 1244,079,859 

Pennsylvania  ($78,000,000,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  Inter- 
nal Affairs,  in  1878,  to  which  must  be  added  at  least  $50,000,000) 138,000,000 

New  Jersey  (special  commission  of  1879) 47,314,803 

Illinois  (Assistant  Auditor  of  the  State) 51,821,691 

Ohio 41,490,574 

Massachusetts  (Tax  Commissioner's  report) 87,000,000 

Wisconsin  (Secretary  of  State),  nearly 10,000,000 

Minnesota  (statistical  review) ,  more  than 5,500,000 

Kansas  (Auditor's  report) ,  more  than 13,000,000 

Missouri  (estimated  in  year-book  of  this  year) 40,000,000 

Connecticut  (compiled  in  1877) * 17,000,000 

Rhode  Island  (State  hand -book),  about 12,000,000 

New  Hampshire  (Tax  Commissioners),  about 5:500,000 

California  (Auditor's  report) ,  about 11,000,000 

Tennessee  (Comptroller's  report)  nearly 10,000,000 

Iowa  (Governor's  message) 6,000,000 

Nevada  (Comptroller's  report) 900,000 

Indiana  (State  bureau  of  statistics),  about 14,000,000 

Louisiana  (Constitutional  Convention) 20,000,000 


Total $764,206,926 

To  these  totals  may  be  added  the  totals  in  round  numbers  for  the  other 
States,  as  given  in  the  United  States  census  for  1870,  which  were  as  fol- 
lows. Mr.  Porter  says  that  he  does  not  expect  to  find  very  great  changes 
in  the  amount  of  the  local  indebtedness  of  the  States  named  below.  The 


APPENDIX.  xv 

debt  in  most  cases  was  small  in  these  States  in  1870,  and  there  have  been 
no  causes  since  for  a  marked  increase : 

Local 
State.  Indebtedness. 

Alabama $  4,800,000 

Arkansas 700,000 

Delaware 500,000 

Florida 900,000 

Georgia 15,000,000 

Kentucky 15,000,000 

Maine 8,500,000 

Maryland 15,500,000 

Michigan 4,000,000 

Mississippi 700,000 

Nebraska 1,500,000 

North  Carolina : 2,500,000 

Oregon T 100,000 

South  Carolina 5,600,000 

Texas l.OQO.OOO 

Vermont 2,500,000 

Virginia 8,500,000 

West  Virginia 500,000 

Total $  87,800,000 

764,206,926 

Grand  total 1852,006,926 


"I." 


Anti-Monopoly. 


SENATE  CHAMBER,  WASHINGTON,  Feb.  19. 
The  Hon.  L.  E.  Chittenden,  President  National  Anti- Monopoly  League: 

MY  DEAR  SIR.— I  deeply  regret  that  official  duties  of  an  imperative 
character  prevent  the  acceptance  of  your  kind  invitation  to  address  the 
meeting  at  Cooper  Institute  on  the  21st  inst.  Until  to-day  I  hoped  to  be 
able  to  arrange  my  business  so  as  to  attend  the  meeting,  but  find  it  will 
be  impossible. 

The  purpose  of  your  League,  as  I  understand  it,  is  not  to  wage  war 
upon  corporations  or  individuals,  but  conceding  to  all  their  just  rights, 
to  demand  full  protection  for  the  rights  of  the  citizen  against  the  abuses 
and  aggressions  of  corporate  power,  and  to  insist  upon  the  enforcement 
of  those  principles  of  law  and  natural  right  defined  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  In  this  effort  you  have  my  most  hearty 
sympathy  and  co-operation.  Your  cause  is  just,  but  in  such  a  contest 
you  grapple  with  giants.  Do  not  underrate  the  power  or  the  skill  of 


xvi  APPENDIX. 

your  antagonists.  Wise  and  conservative  counsels  will  alone  secure 
success.  You  must  be  as  prompt  to  concede  rights  as  you  are  deter- 
mined in  demanding  them.  No  agrarian  or  communistic  spirit  must 
find  a  place  in  your  proceedings.  The  character  of  the  men  who  com- 
pose your  organization  give  assurance  against  danger  on  this  point. 
Constitutions,  natural  rights,  and  the  spirit  of  our  Institutions  are  on 
your  side.  Intrenched  behind  these  and  fighting  for  the  right,  you  can 
not  fail. 

Corporate  power  has  done  much  to  develop  our  country.  For  its 
good  deeds  I  freely  accord  it  full  credit.  As  an  instrument  to  execute 
the  will  and  serve  the  interests  of  the  public,  it  is  of  incalculable  value; 
but  as  the  imperious  ruler  of  the  people  it  is  a  most  cruel  and  relentless 
tyrant.  Kept  within  the  limits  of  proper  restraint  it  is  an  invaluable 
servant  of  the  public.  Unrestrained  by  the  forces  o*  law  and  public 
opinion  it  will  prove  a  most  dangerous  master.  The  individual  citizen 
is  impotent  to  contend  with  this  gigantic  and  rapidly  growing  power- 
Governmental  authority,  State  and  National,  alone  is  competent  to 
restrain  its  aggressions  and  correct  its  abuses.  I  have  long  foreseen  that 
the  time  would  come  when  the  people  would  be  compelled  to  invoke  the 
exercise  of  that  authority  for  their  protection.  I  repeat  to-dajr,  in  sub- 
stance, words  uttered  seven  years  ago,  that  "there  are  in  this  country 
four  men  who,  in  the  matter  of  taxation,  possess  and  frequently  exer- 
cise powers  which  neither  Congress  nor  any  of  our  State  Legislatures 
would  dare  to  exert— powers  which,  if  exercised  in  Great  Britain  would 
shake  the  throne  to  its  very  foundation.  These  men  may  at  any  time, 
and  for  any  reason  satisfactory  to  themselves,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen, 
reduce  the  value  of  property  in  the  United  States  by  hundreds  of  millions. 
They  may  at  their  own  will  and  pleasure  disarrange  and  embarrass  busi- 
ness, depress  one  city  or  locality  and  build  up  another,  enrich  one  indi- 
vidual and  ruin  his  competitors,  and,  when  complaint  is  made,  coolly 
reply,  '  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?' "' 

The  men  who  wield  this  stupendous  corporate  power  have  grown 
wiser  with  the  passage  of  events.  Hitherto  they  have  been  apparently 
content  to  absorb  and  control  the  great  industrial  and  material  interests 
of  the  country  by  a  monopoly  of  the  channels  and  instruments  of  trans- 
portation, but  recently  new  and  alarming  conditions  are  presented. 
They  know  full  well  that  if  the  people  can  freely  communicate  with  each 
other  they  will  see  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  this  power  and  organize 
to  restrain  it.  Hence,  in  order  to  lay  deep  and  sure  foundations  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  power,  and  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  the  people  to 
curb  it,  they  have  now  seized  upon  the  channels  of  thought.  Look  at  it 
a  moment.  One  man,  who  controls  more  miles  of  railroad  than  any 
other  in  the  world,  and  who  is  almost  daily  adding  new  lines  to  his 
colossal  combination,  now  also  controls  the  telegraphic  system  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  and  is  reaching  under  the  sea  to  grasp  that  of 
Europe.  Not  content  with  all  this,  and  determined  that  no  instrument 
of  cdmmercial  and  political  power  shall  elude  his  grasp,  he  is  (as  I  learn) 
also  the  owner  of  three  out  of  the  seven  newspapers  wfaich  constitute  the 


APPENDIX.  xvii 

Associated  Press,  through  the  agency  of  which  the  news  is  distributed 
over  the  entire  country.  He  may  at  any  time  secure  the  fourth  paper, 
which  will  give  him  absolute  control  over  the  news  which  the  people 
shall  receive.  When  that  takes  place  what  will  be  our  condition?  What 
choice  will  the  people  then  have  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  corporate 
power?  How  shall  they  even  communicate  with  each  other  on  the  sub- 
ject? What  opportunity  will  there  be  for  a  fair  discussion  of  these 
questions?  The  daily  news  supplied  to  the  myriad  of  newspapers  must 
first  pass  under  the  supervision  of  one  or  two  men,  who  represent  the 
Associated  Press,  and  who  are  appointed  by  its  owner.  They  will  hare 
full  authority,  and  doubtless  will  be  required  to  suppress,  add  to,  or  color 
the  information  thus  sent  out  as  may  best  serve  the  interests,  the  ambi- 
tion, or  the  malice  of  the  man  to  whom  they  owe  their  places.  Hence 
the  20,000,000  of  people  who  read  their  morning  papers  at  their  breakfast 
tables  will  daily  receive  just  such  impressions  as  this  one  man  shall 
choose  to  give  them.  Public  men  and  affairs,  and  business  interests  and 
movements,  will  be  seen  in  the  coloring  which  shall  best  serve  his  inter- 
ests. The  legislator  who  shall  then  be  bold  enough  to  raise  his  voice  in 
behalf  of  the  people,  or  to  strike  a  blow  in  their  defense,  will  be  mis- 
represented or  denied  a  hearing  before  his  own  constituents.  The  busi- 
ness man  who  shall  venture  to  question  the  divine  right  of  corporate  rule 
will  be  crushed,  and  no  telegraphic  wire  or  Associated  Press  will  voice 
his  woe  or  demand  redress  from  his  persecutors.  The  people  will'  find 
themselves  unable  to  communicate  with  each  other  except  by  the  gra- 
cious will  and  pleasure  of  the  autocrat  of  the  wires.  Should  special  cor- 
respondents undertake  to  supply  information  not  deemed  expedient  to 
be  sent  by  the  Associated  Press,  they  will  find  that  the  owner  of  the 
wires  can  supply  a  ready  remedy  for  such  presumption. 

The  channels  of  thought  and  the  channels  of  commerce  thus  owned 
and  controlled  by  one  man,  or  by  a  few  men,  what  is  to  restrain  corpor-. 
pte  power,  or  to  fix  a  limit  to  its  exactions  upon  the  people?  What  is 
then  to  hinder  these  men  from  depressing  or  inflating  the  value  of  al] 
kinds  of  property  to  suit  their  caprice  or  avarice,  and  thereby  gathering 
into  their  own  coffers  the  wealth  of  the  nation?  Where  is  the  limit  to 
such  a  power  as  this?  What  shall  be  said  of  the  spirit  of  a  few  people 
who  will  submit  without  a  protest  to  be  thus  bound  hand  and  foot?  I 
have  hinted  at  some  of  the  dangers  which  menace  our  future.  If  it  be 
to  correct  these  evils,  and  to  avert  these  dangers  your  j^eague  has  been 
organized,  it  will  receive  the  benedictions  of  the  people. 

The  practical  question  is,  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?"  To 
my  mind  the  answer  is  easy.  This  organized  gigantic  corporate  power 
can  only  be  kept  under  proper  restraint  by  the  organized  power  |of  the 
people,  expressed  through  their  State  and  National  Governments.  That 
such  governmental  power  exists  and  may  properly  be  exercised  I  have  not 
a  particle  of  doubt.  It  is  plainly  written  in  our  constitutions,  and  has 
been  unequivocally  declared  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  limits  of  this  letter  will  not  permit  a  discussion  of  the  constitu- 
tional question  nor  a  detailed  statement  of  the  practical  remedy  for 


xviii  APPENDIX. 

existing  evil.  I  may,  however,  venture  to  ?ugjfest  that,  in  iny  judgment, 
the  first  and  most  important  duty  of  Congress  is  to  emancipate  the  peo- 
ple from  the  supervision  and  control  of  corporate  monopoly,  by  the 
establishment  of  a  system  of  postal  telegraphy,  whereby  they  shall  be 
afforded  a  safe,  sure  and  cheap  method  of  communication  with  each 
other.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  economy  and  success  of  such  a  system. 
It  has  been  tried  in  other  countries  with  most  satisfactory  results. 

I  am  aware  that  it  will  require  much  care,  labor  and  skill  to  frame 
laws  which  shall  successfully  regulate  and  restrain  the  action  of  the 
great  transportation  companies,  without  unnecessary  injury  to  them, 
and  without  omitting  the  essential  elements  of  protection  to  the  public, 
but  I  have  no  doubt  it  can  be  done.  When  the  people  demand  it  they 
will  find  the  men  to  do  it.  I  believe  the  time  has  come  when  this  great 
work  should  be  undertaken. 

It  will  be  far  better  for  the  corporations  themselves  that  it  be  done 
now,  by  conservative  but  thorough  and  judicious  legislation,  rather 
than  to  postpone  it  until  the  people,  no  longer  able  to  bear  the  tyranny 
of  corporate  power,  shall  rise  in  their  wrath  to  humble  and  destroy  their 
oppressors.  At  some  convenient  time  I  shall  endeavor  to  state  specific- 
ally some  of  the  legislative  remedies  I  would  propose. 

Excuse  the  great  length  of  this  letter,  and  believe  me,  very  sincerely 
your  friend,  WILLIAM  WINDOM. 


NEW  YORK,  February  21. — A  large  mass-meeting  was  held  to-night 
at  Cooper  Institute  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Anti-Monopoly 
League.  Peter  Cooper  was  present.  President  L.  E.  Chittenden  briefly 
stated  the  objects  and  purposes  of  the  league,  asserting  its  origin  to  be 
the  outgrowth  of  the  abuses  of  corporate  powers,  and  urging  the  neces- 
sity of  universal  organization  on  some  systematic  basis  by  the  entire 
tax-paying  element  of  the  country. 

Judge  Black,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  introduced.  He  spoke  for  over  an 
hour,  and  in  the  course  of  his  address,  of  which  the  key-note  was  the 
legal  and  constitutional  aspects  of  the  transportation  question,  consid- 
ered at  length  the  relations  of  corporations  to  the  public.  He  said  that 
the  course  of  these  institutions  had  been  steadily  towards  complete 
monopoly ;  that  their  ultimate  designs  were  fraught  with  the  greatest 
danger  to  the  State,  and  that  unless  legislation  should  step  in  and  aid  the 
oppressed  people  the  whole  machinery  of  the  government  would  be 
thrown  into  the  hands  of  monopolists.  "  These  men,"  said  the  speaker, 
"  are  not  now  satisfied  with  their  possessions;  they  will  still  continue  to 
water  their  stocks,  to  absorb  the  property  of  others,  and  to  tax  the  pro- 
ducers at  their  own  caprice,  and  by  the  consolidation  of  railroads,  union 
of  telegraph  lines,  subversion  of  laws,  and  insecurity  given  corporate 
properties  by  their  refusal  to  recognize  the  rights  of  minority,  share- 
holders they  have 


APPENDIX.  xix 

SET  AT  DEFIANCE 

the  rights  of  the  public  and  individual,  prevented  beneficial  competi- 
tion, and  trampled  upon  the  spirit  of  the  constitution  and  laws  of  their 
country." 

He  advocated  that  railroad  men  should  be  turned  out  of  office  under 
the  government  and  their  duties  compelled,  as  well  as  rights  observed, 
through  the  interposition  of  law.  The  constitutional  methods  by  which 
the  people  might  be  protected  in  feheir  rights  were  discussed  and  author- 
ities quoted  to  demonstrate  that  the  remedy  lay  in  the  hands  of  the 
public  itself.  It  was  shown  that  by  the  power  of  their  wealth  railroads 
had  obtained  a  large  share  of  the  control  of  Supreme  and  State  courts 
and  various  legislative  bodies,  and  that  judges  were  elected  and  repre- 
sentatives selected  with  special  reference  to  their  fitness  for  advancing 
the  interests  of  the  corporations  they  represented.  The  railroads  were 
rapidly  assuming  an  influence  disproportionate  to  the  relative  position 
they  occupied  toward  other  bodies.  The  character  and  intent  of  such 
laws  as  should  be  enacted  was  explained,  and  their  adoption  strongly 
recommended. 

The  speaker  was  frequently  interrupted  by  applause,  and  at  one  time 
when  he  asked  the  question,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  these  corpora- 
tion*?" a  man  in  the  audience  shouted:  "Confiscate  their  stealings." 
"  Well."  was  the  answer,  "  we  would  like  to,  but  they've  carried  them 
out  of  sight." 

United  States  Senator  Windom  sent  a  letter.    After  stating  the 

NECESSITY  OF  THE  LEAGUE 

to  banish  from  the  councils  all  communistic  spirit  and  recognize  the 
force  of  power  against  which  it  had  to  contend,  Senator  Windom 
treated  at  length  of  the  abuses  which  exist  in  the  management  of  the 
railroads  and  telegraphs,  and  laid  much  stress  on  the  danger  of  a  single 
man  controlling  the  educational  power  of  the  press  by  the  ownership 
of  telegraphs,  and  strongly  advocated  a  postal  telegraph  and  govern- 
mental restraint  to  be  exercised  over  the  increase  of  corporate  powers. 
l-  Without  such  restraint."  the  letter  reads  ••  what  is  to  fix  the  limit  to 
the  exactions  of  the  corporate  power  upon  the  people?  What  is  there 
to  hinder  these  men  from  depressing  or  inflating  the  value  of  all  kinds  of 
property  to  suit  their  caprice  or  avarice?  What  shall  be  said  of  a  free 
people  who  will  submit  without  protest  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot?" 

"  I  have  hinted  at  some  of  the  dangers  which  menace  our  future.  If 
it  be  to  correct  these  evils  and  avert  these  dangers  your  league  has  been 
organized,  it  will  receive  the  benedictions  of  the  people." 

In  conclusion  it  was  suggested  that  such  laws  be  framed  as  would 
regulate  and  restrain  the  action  of  the  great  transportation  companies 
without  unnecessary  injury  to  them,  and  without  omitting  the  essential 
elements  of  protection  to  the  public. 

The  meeting  was  next  addressed  by  Congressman  Reagan,  who  ad- 
dressed himself  principally  to  the  practical  remedies  which  had  been 
proposed  for  the  abuses  of  corporate  powers,  and  explained  the  features 


xx  APPENDIX. 

of  the  Reagan  bill,  recently  introduced  into  Congress'  for  the  regulation 
of  interstate  commerce  by  railroads,  as  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  The 
following  resolution  was  then  introduced :  . 

Resolved,  That  It  is  the  duty  of  citizens  everywhere  to  organize  anti- 
monopoly  leagues,  and  endeavor  to  secure,  among  others,  the  following 
specific  results : 

First— Laws,  compelling  the  transportation  and  telegraph  companies 
to  base  their  charges  on  risk  and  cost  of  service. 

Second — Laws  to  prevent  the  pooling  of  combinations. 

Third— Laws  to  prevent  discriminations  against  any  class  of  citizens 
on  public  highways. 

Fourth— Courts  to  give  effect  to  the  laws  placed  on  the  statute  books. 

Fifth— Laws  to  make  it  the  official  duties  of  officers  to  defend  citizens 
against  corporate  injustice. 

Ssixth — Laws  to  prevent  public  taxation  to  pay  dividends  on  national 
stocks. 

Seventh — Laws  against  bribery. 

Eighth — Laws  to  regulate  the  commerce  of  the  several  States. 

Ninth— A  liberal  policy  towards  water-ways. 

It  was  resolved  that  independent  journals  should  be  encouraged,  and 
that  the  bread,  meat,  and  fuel  of  the  masses  should  not  be  taxed  to  pay 
dividends  on  fictitious  costs  of  construction. 

The  meeting  was  afterwards  addressed  by  others  advocating  the  prin- 
ciples embodied  in  the  resolutions,  which  were  adopted. 


AJPIPEINDIX:  «ov 


Villard's  Railroad  and  Steamship  Lines. 


How  the  Anaconda  Coils  Around  the   New    States  and 
Territories. 


WALLA  WALLA,  W.  T.,  July  13.— There  is  no  part  of  the  United  States 
more  heartily  opposed  to  monopolies  than  this,  and  for  the  very  good 
reason  that  there  is  no  part  of  the  United  States  more  tortured  by  the 
modern  rack,  monopoly. 

The  device  which,  screw-like,  keeps  the  current  of  financial  life  from 
healthy  coursing  through  the  veins  of  this  member  of  that  body  politic, 
is  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  engines  for  subduing  and  crushing  peoples, 
without  resistance — railroads. 


APPENDIX.  xxi 

About  two  years  ago  Mr.  Hemy  Villard,  and  Eastern  capitalists  whom 
he  represented,  purchased  of  some  gentlemen,  mostly  residing  in  Port- 
land, Oregon,  the  chief  stock  of  the  Oregon  Steamship  and  Navigation 
Company.  This  company  carried  passengers  and  freight  by  steamers 
from  and  to  Portland,  and  up  and  down  the  Columbia  and  Snake  Rivers, 
going  as  far  east  as  Wallula,  Washington  Territory,  and  Lewiston,  Idaho 
Territory,  and  from  Wallula,  by  railroad  thirty  miles,  to  Walla  Walla. ' 
Since  obtaining  control  of  this  property  he  has  constructed  a  broad- 
gauge  railroad  from  Wallula,  along  the  south  bank  of  the  Columbia 
River,  to  The  Dalles,  Oregon,  and  intends  to  continue  it  to  Portland. 
To  this  line  he  has  built  five  or  six  feeders,  running  a  distance  of  thirty 
to  sixty  miles  in  a  northeasterly  direction  from  Walla  Walla,  and  south- 
easterly from  the  Columbia  River  into  Eastern  Oregon.  As  is  well 
known  he  has  also  recently  obtained  control  of  the  land-grant  privileges 
and  property  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway.  The  land -grant  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  in  this  territory  takes  every  other  section  of  seven- 
eighths  of  the  tillable  land ;  in  Oregon,  every  other  section  along  the 
northern  boundary  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  for  a  width  of  twenty 
miles.  Its  privileges,  the  right  of  way,  its  property,  a  railroad  nearly 
completed  from  Ainsworth,  at  the  mouth  of  Snake  River,  to  Spokan 
Falls,  149  miles,  and  about  160  miles  of  railroad  in  operation  on  the 
western  side  of  the  territory,  together  with  some  rolling-stock,  docks? 
houses,  etc.  Since  obtaining  control  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
he  has  bought  the  "Star"  line  of  steamers,  running  on  the  western 
coast  of  the  territory,  and  has  obtained  control  of  the  "  Oregon  Railway 
Company,  Limited,''  which  has  narrow-gauge  lines  running  in  various 
directions,  so  as  to  pretty  thoroughly  tap  the  north  three-quarters  of 
Western  Oregon.  Before  buying  and  building  these  various  railroad  and 
steamship  lines,  he,  as  representative,  owned  or  controlled  the  old  Ben 
Holladay  property,  a  line  of  ocean  steamships  plying  between  Portland 
and  San  Francisco,  and  the  "  Oregon  &  California  Railroad,'' running 
directly  south  through  Western  Oregon,  from  Portland  to  Roseburgh,  a 
distance  of  200  miles. 

To  summarize,  it  can  be  briefly  said  that  he  owns  or  controls  about 
half  the  realty  in  this  territory  and  a  big  slice  of  Oregon;  that  he  owns 
and  controls  all  the  railroads  in  Washington  Tesritory  and  Oregon,  and 
every  steamboat  line  in  their  interior,  and  substantially  the  steamships 
of  their  coasts. 

Of  course  the  object  Mr.  Villard  had  in  buying,  leasing,  and  building, 
was  to  shut  down  on  all  manner  of  competition  that  he  might  become 
extortionate.  I  will  illustrate :  Oregon  Railway  &  Navigation  Com- 
pany freight  rates  from  Walla  Walla  to  Portland,  270  miles— Wheat,  24 
cents  a  bushel,  not  including  wharfage,  leading  cars,  etc. ;  wool  in  sacks 
and  dry  hides,  1%  cents  a  pound.  From  Portland  to  Walla  Walla,  first- 
class  freight,  as  farm  machinery  and  furniture,  17  mills  a  pound;  second- 
class.  1>£  cents  a  pound;  third-class,  1)£  cents;  fourth-class,  \%  cents. 
Any  freight  of  less  weight  than  100  pounds  charged  as  though  it  were 
100. 


xxii  APPENDIX. 

The  rates  over  any  of  the  Villard  lines  in  Eastern  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington Territory  are  equally  oppressive.  Those  in  Western  Oregon  and 
Washington  I  am  unacquainted  with,  but  I  have  no  reason  for  thinking 
they  are  less  extortionate. 

The  rate  of  freight  on  grain  from  Chicago  to  New  York,  979  miles,  in 
the  winter  when  there  is  no  lake  competition,  is  30  to  35  cents  a  hundred 
pounds,  other  freight  relatively.  The  rate  on  a  ton  of  second-class  from 
Portland  to  Walla  Walla,  270  miles,  is  30;  from  San  Francisco  to  Port- 
land, 730  miles,  $4;  from  China  to  Frisco,  $2.50. 

Men  who  are  competent  to  judge,  through  the  experience  of  travel  over 
the  entire  west,  pronounce  this  country,  east  of  the  Cascade  range,  one 
of  the  best  for  a  farmer.  Most  of  the  soil  is  exceedingly  prolific  in  small 
grains,  and  easily  cultivated.  Part  of  the  labor  of  the  six  creative  days 
was  well  put  in  here.  All  that  is  needed  to  make  it  rarely  prosperous  is 
competitive  freights  to  tidewater.  For  nearly  fifteen  years  the  people  of 
this  country  have  been  looking  forward  to  the  completion  of  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad.  During  the  last  year,  up  to  three  months  ago, 
promises,  and  better  still,  signs  were  given,  which  made  the  people  con- 
fident of  an  immediate  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
from  here  to  Puget  Sound.  Such  a  road  meant  competition— that  is  to 
sa  asonable  freights.  About  three  months  ago,  as  has  been  said,  Mr, 
"Vnard  secured  control  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  which  meant 
no  competition — that  is  to  say,  exorbitant  freights.  But  beyond  that  it 
destroyed  hope,  so  difficult  of  separation  from  the  future.  There  are  but 
three  passes  for  railroads  from  this  section  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  one 
over  the  Cascade  Mountains,  the  other  two  the  north  and  south  bank  of 
the  Columbia  River.  Henry  Villard  now  holds  them  all. — Cincinnati 
Gazette. 


The  Value  of  the  Land  Grant. 


i  The  value  of  the  land  grant  of  the  Northern  Pacific  is  greater  than  is 
usually  known.  While  the  times  forbade  the  rapid  completion  of  the 
road,  and  the  limit  had  been  passed  which  its  charter  allowed  for  build- 
ing, its  managers  did  not  think  it  wise  to  boast  of  the  value  of  their 
franchise  in  the  face  of  a  Congress  that  had  already  raised  the  question 
of  a  forfeiture.  Since  money  has  come  into  the  treasury  by  the  bushel  to 
finish  the  road,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  decided  that  the 
charter  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  unlike  the  charters  of  most  land  grant 
roads,  does  not  permit  of  a  forfeiture,  this  reserve  about  the  land  grant 
has  worn  off.  Where  it  runs  through  a  State,  the  Northern  Pacific  has 
half  the  land — distributed  in  alternate  sections — for  twenty  miles  on 
each  side  of  its  track.  In  other  words,  it  has  the  equivalent  of  a  solid 
strip  twenty  miles  wide  through  Wisconsin,  west  of  Montreal  River,  and 


APPENDIX.  xxiii 

through  Minnesota.  Through  Dakota,  Montana,  Idaho,  and  along  the 
Cascade  Branch,  it  has  what  is  equal  to  a  solid  strip  of  land  forty  miles 
wide. 

If  its  other  branch  on  the  Pacific  slope  runs  between  Oregon  and 
Washington,  it  will  have  beside  the  above  the  half  of  a  strip  forty  miles 
wide  in  Washington,  and  half  of  one  twenty  miles  wide  in  Oregon.  Its 
charter  gives  it  a  double  line,  and  so  a  double  land  grant,  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  So,  when  the  Northern  Pacing  buys  the  Oregon  Eailway  & 
Navigation  Company's  line,  it  will  take  with  it  a  land  grant  of  immense 
value.  It  may  do  this,  for  its  charter  permits  it  expressly  to  build  or 
acquire  in  order  to  complete  its  line  from  the  lakes  to  the  Pacific.  Its 
main  line  and  its  branches  will  give  the  Northern  Pacific  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  an  equivalent  of  a  belt  seventy  miles  wide  to  tide  water. 

But  this  is  not  all,  as  much  of  the  land  that  lay  in  the  path  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  had  been  taken  up,  or  would  be  taken  up  before  its 
grant  occurred,  by  pre-emptions,  homesteads,  by  grants  to  other  rail- 
roads, by  reservations  to  Indians  and  similar  causes.  Congress  pro- 
vided that  when  such  shortages  occurred  the  road  could  take  an  equivalent 
amount  of  land  anywhere  within  a  belt  ten  miles  wide  on  each  side  of  its 
original  land  grant.  And,  still  later,  Congress  gave  it  permission  to 
recoup  itself  from  any  such  shortages  that  were  made  after  1864,  by 
taking  an  equal  amount  of  land  out  of  a  second  indemnity  belt  ten  miles 
wide  on  each  side  of  the  first  indemnity  limit.  That  is,  the  Northern 
Pacific  takes,  with  the  exception  of  what  the  Government  has  already 
disposed  of,  one-half  of  a  belt  forty  miles  wide  through  Wisconsin, 
forty  miles  wide  through  Minnesota,  eighty  miles  wide  through  Dakota, 
eighty  miles  wide  through  Montana,  eighty  miles  wide  through  Idaho, 
eighty  miles  wide  through  Washington  along  the  Cascade  Branch,  forty 
miles  wide  along  the  Portland  Branch  in  Washington,  and  twenty  miles 
wide  in  Oregon  along  the  last  named  branch.  Then  if  it  finds  itself 
short  say,  for  illustration,  5,000,000  acres  of  the  amount  of  land  it  ought 
to  have,  it  may  recoup  itself  to  that  amount  out  of  any  unappropriated 
land  within  the  two  indemnity  belts.  These  give  it  an  additional  strip 
forty  miles  wide  from  the  lakes  to  the  Pacific  within  which  to  make  its 
selection.  It  may  take  up  all  its  shortage  at  any  point  in  this  belt 
where  it  finds  the  most  valuable  land.  If  the  best  land,  for  instance,  lay 
in  Montana  the  road  could  make  up  all  its  shortage  there,  and  might  take 
one-half  of  all  the  land  for  a  width  of  120  miles  until  its  land  grant 
was  satisfied.— Chicago  Tribune,  July  22. 


Gold,  Silver,  and  Paper  Money  in  Circulation  in  Twenty-four 
Countries. 


We  give  the  estimated  amount  of  gold  and  silver  and  paper  money  in 
circulation  in  twenty-four  countries  at  the  latest  dates : 


xxiv 


APPENDIX. 


Specie—  Total 
gold  and 

Austria.  
Australia  

$322,938,854 
58  '419'(XK) 

$     70,560,000 
50,000,000 
174  000  000 

Brazil       ....         

91  000  000 

Nominal 

29  047  000 

10  291  285 

1,  "895  343 

4  700  000 

18  900  000 

28  863  000 

466  755  000 

1  159  344  850 

229,696.220 

543,108  419 

200  J4jj  875 

711  995  211 

12  890  000 

7  500  000 

Italv 

135  OOO'OOO 

40000,000 

143,000.000 

50,000,000 

Mexico  

1,500,000 

77,980,000 

Netherlands 

73233000 

11,200  000 

10,300,000 

1,882,000 

Peru  

13,098,820 

85,000.000 

29  520  000 

110  000,000 

Russia  

587,907,000 

200,000,000 

33,795  000 

18,120,000 

Sweden                                       ... 

11  680  000 

94700000 

100,000,000 

Nominal. 

United  States,  1879         

683  943,799 

427,206,852 

$3,306,480,151 

$3,900,851,635 

— Indianapolis  Journal*  June  25th. 


Local  Debts. 


OUK  DEBTS. 

The  census  returns  of  indebtedness  shows  that  the  aggregate  debts  of 
311  cities  in  the  United  States  having  a  population  of  7,500  and  over  are 
$710,535,000,  of  which  $682,096,000  is  bonded  and  $28,439,000  floating. 
The  same  cities  have  an  aggregate  of  .$117,191,000  sinking  funds,  so  that 
their  net  debts  are  $593,344,000.  The  aggregate  debts  of  the  States  are 
estimated  at  $250,000,000,  and  the  aggregate  debts  of  towns,  townships, 
and  school  districts  are  estimated  at  $225,000,000.  This  would  make  the 
aggregate  debts  of  all  kinds  except  the  national  debt  $1,069,076,000. 


A     000018514     0 


